Maryland passes another new constitution, that renews the voting franchise to returning Confederate soldiers. Governor Thomas Swann (1809 -1833), pictured turns a blind eye to requiring the loyalty oath from former Confederate sympathizers. The legislation from the 1864 Constitution is reversed as the former rebels for the first time take Democratic party control of the Baltimore and state governments from the Republicans. One of the consequences of end of the Civil War was that Maryland saw very little of Reconstruction, unlike the rest of the South.
Although the new government must accept the ratified 13th Amendment, it refuses to ratify the 14th in 1868 which guarantees full citizenship rights to freed African Americans, and 15th Amendment in 1879 which guarantees voting rights to African American men.
