Why the 39th Congress was the most powerful in American history and why we have a multi-racial democracy today.

On December 4, 1865, the Radical Republicans faced a similar situation — a reckless president working with traitors to undo everything the Civil War had accomplished. The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery had passed by a margin so thin you could see through it. And now a dozen ex-Confederates were flooding back into Congress to take their seats and reverse it all, with dozens more on the way.

So what did the anti-slavery resistance do?

They made those people invisible.

House Clerk Edward McPherson, working with Thaddeus Stevens, simply refused to call the names of representatives from traitor states during the roll call. When they protested, Stevens shut them down with parliamentary procedure. No vote. No debate. Just power, used completely, to bar the door long enough to pass the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

The 39th Congress became the most powerful Congress in American history because they understood something contemporary politicians pretend not to know: when you have power, use it. All of it. Because the other side never hesitates.