CHAPTER IX.

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.

In 1864 a joint resolution to prohibit slavery in the United States was introduced into the House by the Hon. James M. Ashley of Ohio, and in the Senate by Hon. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, and Hon. J. H. Henderson of Missouri. Senator Trumbull of Illinois on the judiciary committee, to whom the Senate resolutions were referred, reported a substitute for the amendment, which was passed in the Senate April, 1864, but failed to pass the House. On the last day of January, 1865, the House passed the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery by vote of 119 to 56, and on the 8th of February it was passed in the Senate. It was ratified first by Illinois and by most of the Northern states in six months. Secretary Seward announced the final ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, December 18th, 1865, as follows:

Thirty-eighth Congress of the United States of America: At the Second Session. Begun and held at the City of Washington, on Monday, the fifth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.

A RESOLUTION submitting to the legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both houses concurring): That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said Constitution, namely: Article XIII. Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. SCHUYLER COLFAX,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
H. HAMLIN,

Vice-President of the United States,
and President of the Senate.

Approved February 1, 1865.-ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

McClain, in his Constitutional Law in the United States, says: "Since the abolition of slavery throughout the United States and by the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, this provision has ceased to have any practical value, though it doubtless applies to apprentices and perhaps might apply to persons convicted of crime in one state and sentenced to labor as punishment but who have subsequently escaped to another state:" Page 270.

FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States, at the First session, begun and held at the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia, on Monday, the fourth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.

Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (twothirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:

Article XIV. Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twentyone years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the pro

portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

SCHUYLER COLFAX,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
LA FAYETTE S. FOSTER,
President of the Senate pro tempore.

Attest:

EDWD. MCPHERSON,

Clerk of the House of Representatives.

J. W. FORNEY,

Secretary of the Senate.*

"The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted on account of fear that the negroes recently emancipated from slavery, and who prior to the adoption of that amendment had not been uniformly regarded as citizens, would be deprived in some of the states of their civil rights. But the language of the Amendment goes further than to make the negroes citizens, and guarantees to

*The fourteenth amendment being declared by a concurrent resolution of Congress, adopted July 21, 1868, to have been ratified by "threefourths and more of the several States of the Union," the Secretary of State was required duly to promulgate the text. He accordingly issued a proclamation, dated July 28, 1868, declaring the amendment to have been ratified by thirty of the thirty-six States.

them the privileges and immunities of citizenship. It is unlimited in its scope and has been so interpreted." (Paragraph 259, McClain's Constitution of the United States).

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Fortieth Congress of the United States of America; at the third Session. Begun and held at the city of Washington, on Monday, the seventh day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.

A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (twothirds of both Houses concurring) That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:

Article XV. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

SCHUYLER COLFAX,

In most of the southern states, however, where slavery previously existed, the negro population is now practically deprived of the right of suffrage given it by the Fifteenth Amendment, notwithstanding the provision.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, if strictly construed, might be held to prevent the exclusion of the Japanese or Chinese from citizenship in the United States.

*The fifteenth amendment was declared in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March 30, 1870, to have been ratified by twenty-nine of the thirty-seven States.