As Republicans in Congress were allowing Johnson to control Reconstruction, they were becoming angry at the handling of Reconstruction because former Confederate officials were getting elected to the state and national legislatures, and the South was passing black codes restricting the rights of freedmen. Northern Republicans were not going to sit back and allow this to happen. So they began over-riding President Johnson’s veto with a 2/3rd vote, and in 1867 they impeached Johnson. In 1866 Radical Republicans in Congress were able to pass the Civil Rights of 1866, and they were also able to get the U. S. to pass the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. In 1868 former Union General Ulysses Grant became president.