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 issues of the war. Thus far the lately seceded states had been under governments and constitutions approved by the President but never sanctioned by Congress, and they were implacably hostile to the proposed establishment of universal citizenship and equal rights. Congress accordingly set aside those governments and substituted a temporary military administration, which made it clear that the restoration of the states to their normal place in the Union was dependent upon their acceptance of the results of the war as set forth in the fourteenth amendment. They must establish equal manhood suffrage, without regard to race. This they presently did and of course under such suffrage the fourteenth amendment was promptly ratified by them. By 1870, five years after the end of the war, the last of the formerly seceding states was fully reestablished in its place in the Federal Union.

Meantime, another constitutional amendment was deemed needful to complete the work of reconstruction. The states had granted the suffrage to the former slaves, but there was lacking sufficient guarantee that they would not at some future time withdraw it. Accordingly the fifteenth amendment was drafted by the Republican leaders, adopted by the Republican majority in Congress and proposed to the states on February 27, 1869 and was proclaimed as ratified on March 30, 1870. It was brief, and to the point, providing that “The right of the 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.” The southern states being then generally under Republican Control, the amendment was ratified by nearly all of them.