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THE XIV AMENDMENT.

CONCERNING RIGHTS OF CITIZENS, REPRESENTATION, RECONSTRUCTION, AND VALIDITY OF THE PUBLIC DEBT. ADOPTED BY CONGRESS JUNE 13TH, 1866, AND RATIFIED BY THREEFOURTHS OF THE LEGISLATURES OF THE STATES, JULY 20TII, 1868.

THE joint resolution as passed is as follows:

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 as part of the Constitution, namely:

ARTICLE

§ 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the States 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 happiness, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

§ 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons, exclud

ng Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President, representatives in Congress, executive and judicial officers, or members of the Legislature thereof, 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.

§ 3. That no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or nilitary, 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

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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 and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disabilities.

§ 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 or 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.

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

THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.

Passed by Congress previous to the Adoption of the New Constitution, and subsequently adopted by Congress, Aug. 7, 1789, entitled, "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States north-west of the River Ohio."

(All the Articles of this ordinance, previous to Article VI., relate to the organization and powers of the government of the territory, the following section being all that relates to slavery.)

ARTICLE VI.

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid.

Done by the United States in Congress assembled the thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of the sovereignty and Independence. the twelfth.

WILLIAM GRAYSON, Chairman.

CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793.

ADOPTED FEBRUARY 12, 1793.

An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the executive authority of any State in the Union, or of either of the territories north-west or south of the River Ohio, shall demand any person, as a fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any such State or Territory to which such person shall have fled, and shall, moreover, produce the copy of an indictment found, or an affidavit made before a magistrate of any State or Territory as aforesaid, charging the person so demanded with having committed treason, felony, or other crime, certified as authentic by the governor or

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