Reconstruction refers to the period immediately after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877 when several United States administrations sought to reconstruct society in the former Confederate states in particular by establishing and protecting the legal rights of the newly freed black population.
In 1866 the Radical Republican Congress sought to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. This was part of the power struggle between Johnson who sought highly lenient policies towards the former Confederate states and the Radical Republicans who wanted a harsher version of Reconstruction as well as more forceful protection of the rights of the newly freed southern black population. Ultimately the impeachment, which was not popular or supported by the general public, failed by one vote.
Thaddeus Stevens was one of the main leaders of the Radical Republican faction in Congress during Reconstruction.
Under Stevens' leadership, Congress passed a reconstruction law, described at the time as "written with a steel pen made out of a bayonet." The law abolished all Southern state governments set up under Johnson's program. President Johnson vetoed the law, saying that it would create an "absolute despotism" over the South. But Congress voted to override his veto.
The correct answer is the first: "A Radical Republican majority Congress overturned any of President Johnson’s vetoes to enact harsher regulations on the South."
