Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/204

184 On April 9, 1866, the “civil rights bill” was passed by congress over the president's veto; it enacted “that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right in every state and territory in the United States to make and enforce contracts; to sue, be parties, and give evidence; to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real estate and personal property; and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other; any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.” The United States courts were given jurisdiction of offences against this act. On June 8 a joint resolution passed the senate by a vote of 33 to 11, and on the 13th was approved by the house by a vote of 138 to 36, proposing an amendment to the constitution, which is known as the fourteenth amendment. It provides that “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,” and that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;” that when the right of suffrage in any state “is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being 21 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 21 years of age in such state;” that “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;” and that “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.” It also incapacitates from holding office certain classes of persons who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; but congress may by a vote of two thirds of each house remove such disability. Under this power the disabilities have been removed from great numbers by special acts, and by the act of May 22, 1872, from all “except senators and representatives of the 36th and 37th congresses, officers

in the judicial, military, and naval service of the United States, heads of departments, and foreign ministers of the United States,” who joined the confederate cause. In July, 1866, senators and representatives were admitted from Tennessee, that state having ratified the fourteenth amendment. On Jan. 8, 1867, an act was passed over President Johnson's veto conferring the right of suffrage on colored citizens of the District of Columbia, and on the 24th a similar act became a law for the territories. The congressional plan of reconstruction was developed in the act of March 2 and the supplementary acts of March 23 and July 19, each of which was passed over the president's veto. These acts declared that “no legal state governments or adequate protection for life or property now exist in the rebel states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas,” and divided them into five military districts. It was made the duty of the president to assign to the command of each of these districts an officer of the army not below the rank of brigadier general, and to detail a sufficient military force to enable each officer to enforce his authority. The district commanders were required to make a registration of voters, comprising male citizens of the United States 21 years old and upward, without regard to race, color, or previous condition, who had resided in the respective states one year and were not excluded from holding office by the fourteenth amendment. Upon registration voters were required to take and subscribe an oath, declaring among other things that they had not been disfranchised for participation in any rebellion or civil war against the United States; that they had never been members of any state legislature, nor held any executive or judicial office in any state, nor taken an oath in an official capacity to support the constitution of the United States, and afterward engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; and engaging faithfully to support the constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and to encourage others to do so. Delegates were to be elected in the several states by the registered voters to conventions for framing new constitutions. Only when constitutions had been adopted conferring the right of suffrage on colored persons, and such constitutions had been approved by congress, and when the fourteenth amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of the respective states, were senators and representatives to be admitted. The conditions of these acts were complied with in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina in 1868, and in Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia in 1870. But in Georgia the subsequent action of the legislature in excluding colored members led to further measures on the part of congress, and delayed