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OMNIBUS ACT 15 Stat. 73 (1868)

The Omnibus Act readmitted six of the Confederate states to full congressional representation and terminated military governance in them.

After the process of restoration mandated by the MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION ACTS was largely completed, Congress readmitted Arkansas in June 1868 and, three days later, by the Omnibus Act readmitted Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The Omnibus Act declared that each of the six states had complied with the conditions specified in the Military Reconstruction Acts, required each to ratify the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, and imposed the "fundamental condition" that the state constitutional provisions for black suffrage be inviolate. All the congressmen and senators of these states were seated by late July 1868.

Georgia's full readmission was delayed for two years, however, because the state legislature excluded all black members and admitted several whites disfranchised by the Fourteenth Amendment or the Military Reconstruction Acts. Congress by special legislation forced a rescission of these actions, and Georgia once again underwent military supervision until its readmission. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were also readmitted in 1870, thus bringing the formal process of RECONSTRUCTION to a close.