by the Attorney-General was prevented by the provision that "no district commander or member of the board of registration, or any of the officers or appointees acting under them, shall be bound in his action by any opinion of any civil officer of the United States." The closing section, taken in connection with this, was fully as significant: "All the provisions of this act and of the acts to which this is supplementary shall be construed liberally, to the end that all the intents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out." 5. Reconstruction under the provisions of these three acts was rapidly accomplished in most of the States.[177] In some of the districts the commanders probably were too severe upon the whites, but in the main the intent of the acts was carried out with as little harshness as could well be expected. Those qualified were registered, conventions were held, and constitutions were framed and submitted to the people for their ratification according to the provisions of the acts. Alabama was the first State to vote upon a new constitution, and the Democrats, or Conservatives, as they styled themselves, took advantage of the fifth section of the act of March 23, which required at least one-half of the registered voters to vote on the question of ratification, as a condition of the validity of the election. Non-action seemed to be the easiest method of defeating the constitution, and they accordingly absented themselves from the polls, only 70,812, out of 165,812 registered voters, casting their ballots.[178] 6. There had been a strong minority in Congress opposed to the insertion of this section, who had foreseen this very outcome; and the action of Alabama converted the minority into a majority. A third supplementary bill was accordingly passed. Johnson neither signed nor vetoed it; and it became a law without his signature on March 11, 1868. It provided that in future all elections authorized by the act of March 23, 1867, "should be decided by a majority of the votes actually cast," thus preventing any repetition of the Alabama experiment.[179] 7. The constitution submitted in Mississippi was rejected. Constitutions were not submitted in Texas and Virginia until a later date. The other States ratified their constitutions by large majorities, and on June 22 the act "to admit the State of Arkansas to representation in Congress" became a law. 8. Three days later the act admitting North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and Florida to representation, became a law. Both bills were passed over the President's vetoes, Johnson to the last refusing to recognize even in the most indirect way the constitutionality of the congressional plan.