7. READMISSION OF STATES: FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT Arkansas Readmitted Acts and Resolutions, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 43. veto. Passed over the [June 22, 1868] WHEREAS the people of Arkansas, in pursuance of the provisions of an act entitled "An act for the more efficient government of the rebel States," passed March 2, 1867, and the acts supplementary thereto, have framed and adopted a constitution of State government, which is republican, and the legislature of said State has duly ratified the amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed by the thirty-ninth Congress, and known as Article fourteen; Therefore, Be it enacted. . That the State of Arkansas is entitled and admitted to representation in Congress, as one of the States of the Union, upon the following fundamental condition: That the constitution of Arkansas shall never be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote who are entitled to vote by the constitution herein recognized, except as a punishment for such crimes as are now felonies at common law, whereof they shall have been duly convicted, under laws equally applicable to all inhabitants of said State. Six More States Readmitted Passed over the veto. Acts and Resolutions, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 44. Georgia was soon expelled. In Mississippi, the new constitutions had not been adopted. Alabama was readmitted though the new constitution had been rejected. [June 25, 1868] WHEREAS the people of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have, in pursuance of the provisions of an act entitled "An act for the more efficient government of the rebel States," passed March 2, 1867, and the acts supplementary thereto, framed constitutions of State government which are republican, and have adopted said con stitutions by large majorities of the votes cast at the elections held for the ratification or rejection of the same: therefore, Be it enacted. . That each of the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, shall be entitled and admitted to representation in Congress as a State of the Union when the Legislature of such State shall have duly ratified the amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed by the thirty-ninth Congress, and known as Article fourteen, upon the following fundamental conditions: That the constitution of neither of said States shall ever be so amended or changed, as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote in said State who are entitled to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized, except as a punishment for such crimes as are now felonies at common law, whereof they shall have been duly convicted under laws equally applicable to all the inhabitants of said State . . and the State of Georgia shall only be entitled and admitted to representation upon this further fundamental condition; that the first and third subdivisions of section seventeen of the fifth article of the constitution of said State, except the proviso to the first subdivision, shall be null and void, and that the general assembly of said State, by solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the State to the foregoing fundamental condition. Sec. 2. That if the day fixed for the first meeting of the Legislature of either of said States by the constitution or ordinance thereof, shall have passed, or have so nearly arrived before the passage of this act that there shall not be time for the Legislature to assemble at the period fixed, such legislature shall convene at the end of twenty days from the time this act takes effect unless the governor-elect shall sooner convene the same. Sec. 3. That the first section of this act shall take effect as to each State, except Georgia, when such State shall by its legislature duly ratify Article fourteen of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the ThirtyNinth Congress, and as to the State of Georgia when it shall in addition give the assent of said State to the fundamental condition heretofore imposed upon the same; and thereupon the officers of each State, duly elected and qualified under the constitution thereof, shall be inaugurated without delay; but no person prohibited from holding office under the United States or under any State by section three of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States known as Article fourteen shall be deemed eligible to any office in either of said States unless relieved from disability as provided in said amendment; and it is hereby made the duty of the President within ten days after receiving official information of the ratification of said amendment by the Legislature of either of said States, to issue a proclamation announcing that fact. The Fourteenth Amendment Acts and Resolutions, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 406. Joint resolution proposing the Amendment passed Congress June 13, 1866, but was not sent to the President. It was ratified by the requisite number of states and proclaimed. [July 28, 1868] ARTICLE XIV Sec. I. 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. Sec. 2. Representatives shall be appointed 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 twenty-one 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 proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in said State. Sec. 3. No Person shall be Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President or 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. Sec. 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. Sec. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 8. RECONSTRUCTION THE ISSUE IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868 The Republican Platform on Reconstruction [May 21, 1868] McPherson, History of Reconstruction, p. 364. I. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the majority of the States lately in rebellion, of Constitutions securing equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the Government to sustain those institutions and to prevent the people of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. 2. The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to all the loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States. . 8. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws; who has employed his executive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, liberty, and life, of the citizen; who has abused the pardoning power; who has denounced the national legislature as unconstitutional; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by every means in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion; who has perverted the public patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption; and who has been justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pronounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators. . 13. That we highly recommend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with which men who have served in the re |