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. "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 ap propriate legislation, the provisions of this article." States. The amendment, having passed the fiery ordeal of congressional debate and action, was to be subjected to the hostile I criticism of the President and to run the gantlet of the It passed Congress on the 18th of June, 1866, and on the 22d the President sent in a message in which, after alluding to "the paramount importance" of amending the Consti tution under any circumstances, spoke of the enhancement of that importance "by the fact that the joint resolution was not submitted by the two houses to the approval of the President, and that of the thirty-six States which constitute the Union, eleven are excluded from representation in either house of Congress, although, with the single exception of Texas, they have been entirely restored to all their functions as States, in conformity with the organic law of the land, and have appeared at the national capital by Senators and Representatives who have applied for, and have been refused, admission to the vacant seats." Referring to his doubts "whether the action of Congress was in harmony with the sentiments of the people," "waiving the question of its constitutional validity, as also of "the merits of the article" to be submitted to the people, and expressing his belief that no amendment should be submitted until these States are represented in Congress, he informed that body that, in submitting it for the ratification of the States, his action and that of the Secretary of State were "purely ministerial and in no sense whatever committing the executive to an approval or a recommendation of the amendment to the State legislatures or to the people." The opposition it encountered from the people was more protracted, if not more violent; for more than two years were consumed in the struggle, and it was not until the 20th of July, 1868, that Mr. Seward made public proclamation of his certificate that the requisite number of States had ratified the amendment. Reciting the facts and quoting the laws that prescribed his duty in the premises, he continued: "And whereas it appears, from official documents on file in this Department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Iowa; "And whereas it further appears, from documents on file in this Department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has also been ratified by newly constituted and newly established bodies avowing themselves to be, and acting as, the legislatures, respectively, of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama; "And whereas it further appears, from official documents on file in this Department, that the legislatures of two of the States first above enumerated, to wit, Ohio and New Jersey, have since passed resolutions, respectively, withdrawing the consent of each of said States to the aforesaid amendment; and whereas it is deemed a matter of doubt and uncertainty whether such resolutions are not irregular, invalid, and therefore ineffectual for withdrawing the consent of the said two States, or of either of them, to the aforesaid amendment; .... "And whereas the twenty-three States first hereinbefore named, whose legislatures have ratified the said proposed amendment, and the six States next thereafter named, as having ratified the said proposed amendment by newly constituted and established legislative bodies, together constitute three fourths of the whole number of States in the United States: "Now, therefore, be it known that I, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and eighteen, hereinbefore cited, do hereby certify that if the resolutions of the legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey ratifying the aforesaid amendment are to be deemed as remaining in full force and effect, notwithstanding the subsequent resolutions of the legis latures of those States which purport to withdraw the consent of said States from such ratification, then the aforesaid amendment has been ratified in the manner herein before mentioned, and so has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States." The next day Congress adopted a concurrent resolution, in the Senate without a count, and in the House by a vote of one hundred and thirty-six to thirty-two, declaring the Fourteenth Amendment to be a part of the Constitution. CHAPTER XLVII. - FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT. -- Fourteenth Amendment defective. Mr. Boutwell reports resolution in the House and opens the debate. Democratic reply. - Eldridge, Kerr, Beck. Amendments offered by Bingham, Ward, Shellabarger, and speeches. - Boutwell's rejoinder. Speech of B. H. Butler. Resolutions adopted. - False accusations of partisanship. - Patriotic purposes of the Republicans. - Resolutions reported to the Senate. Speech of Stewart. - Senate resolution adopted. House resolution reported. — Amendments and substitutes proposed. Speeches of Ferry, Dixon, Morton. — Woman suffrage. — Mr. Sumner opposes the resolution. — Too sanguine. - Mr. Willey's speech. - Republican opposition. Dixon, Doolittle, Norton. - Twenty-four hours' debate. - Speech and amendment of Mr. Wilson. Defence of Republican policy. Vote and conference. Adoption of amendment. - Ratification by the States. - President's special message. --- THE great defect of the Fourteenth Amendment, as freely charged during its discussion, was its at least tacit recognition of the right of States to disfranchise the ex-slaves, should they so elect. True, they could not do.it without sacrificing so much in the basis of their representation in Congress; but if they were willing to make that sacrifice, there was nothing in the amendment to prevent such discrimination. To remedy that defect, so palpable and so dissonant from the doctrine of human rights, the proclaimed equality of mankind, and the two amendments already adopted, and at the same time to rescue the freedmen from the almost uncontrolled domination of the late slavemasters, with their bitter determination to keep them from the full enjoyment of their newly found liberty, and to put into their hands a weapon for their own defence, it was resolved to incorporate into the organic law a new provision for their protection, and to supplement the amendments of the Constitution already adopted by another. There were accordingly introduced into both houses, almost simultaneously, measures for that purpose. It should be premised, and it may be appropriately mentioned in this connection, that from the first the thought of negro suffrage, as one of the logical results of the Rebellion, was entertained. Rid, by their treason, of all constitutional claims of the slave-masters, hitherto recognized and respected, many at once coupled the looked-for freedom of the slaves with the gift of citizenship and the rights, immunities, and perquisites thereof. And when that freedom was assured, there were not wanting those who were prepared to make it thus effective by at once invoking Congress to adopt measures for that purpose. As, therefore, the general government had exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia and the Territories, and could not be estopped by any fancied or real infringement of State rights from any legislation deemed expedient, the idea of clothing the newly made freedmen with the right of voting took the form of resolutions early introduced into both houses of Congress to that effect. Not unaware of the risks involved, or rather of the fact that there were risks to be taken in such a venture and new departure, probably, indeed, not quite adequately impressed with all that was involved in so great and radical a change, they deemed it wise, for the good hoped for, to accept the chances, and trust to the natural workings of just action and the favor of an overruling Providence for desirable results and a safe deliverance. Thus freed from constitutional entanglements and State complications, these early debates on the suffrage question partook more largely of the enunciation of general principles and of the nature of the policy itself than was observable later, when those State and constitutional issues were brought forward and so earnestly pressed. No sooner, therefore, had the XXXIXth Congress come together at its first session than Mr. Wade introduced, on the 4th of December, 1865, into the Senate a bill giving each male person of the age of twenty-one years, a citizen of the United States, and a resident in the District of Columbia six months, the elective franchise without distinction of race, color, or |