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  1. Overview: United States Fourteenth Amendment & The Civil Rights Act of 1866
  2. Full Record: United States Fourteenth Amendment & The Civil Rights Act of 1866
  3. Committee:The Senate
  4. Session: 1866-04-30 12:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE_FROM

United States Fourteenth Amendment & The Civil Rights Act of 1866

An amendment to the Constitution of the United States that granted citizenship and equal rights, both civil and legal, to Black Americans, including those who had been emancipated by the thirteenth amendment.

The Senate

The Senate of the Thirty-Ninth Session of Congress

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Document introduced in:

Session 5539: 1866-04-30 12:00:00

The Joint Committee of Fifteen reports S. Res. 78, S. 292, and S. 293 to the Senate

Document View:

S. 292

There are 5 proposed amendments related to this document on which decisions have not been taken.

A BILL

To provide for restoring to the States lately in insurrection their full political rights.

Whereas it is expedient that the States lately in insurrection should, at the earliest day consistent with the future peace and safety of the Union, be restored to full participation in all political rights; and whereas the Congress did, by joint resolution, propose for ratification to the legislatures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, an article in the following words, to wit:

"ARTICLE —.

"SECTION 1. 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.

"SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever, in any State, the elective franchise shall be denied to any portion of its male citizens not less than twenty-one years of age, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation in such State shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens not less than twenty-one years of age.

"SECTION 3. Until the fourth day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy, all persons who voluntarily adhered to the late insurrection, giving it aid and comfort, shall be excluded from the right to vote for representatives in Congress and for electors for President and Vice-President of the United States.

"SECTION 4. Neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation already incurred, or which may hereafter be incurred, in aid of insurrection or of war against the United States, or any claim for compensation for loss of involuntary service or labor.

"SECTION 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article:"

Now, therefore—

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the above-recited amendment shall have become part of the Constitution of the United States, and any State lately in insurrection shall have ratified the same, and shall have modified its constitution and laws in conformity therewith, the senators and representatives from such State, if found duly elected and qualified, may, after having taken the required oaths of office, be admitted into Congress as such.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That when any State lately in insurrection shall have ratified the foregoing amendment to the Constitution of the United States, any part of the direct tax under the act of August five, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, which may remain due and unpaid in such State, may be assumed and paid by such State; and the payment thereof, upon proper assurances from such State to be given to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, may be postponed for a period not exceeding ten years from and after the passage of this act.

Decisions yet to be taken

  • S. 292 (introduced on 1866-04-30 12:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e899546) [This document]
  • S. Res. 78 (introduced on 1866-04-30 12:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e896842)
  • S. 293 (introduced on 1866-04-30 12:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e899555)
    • Motion to Substitute S. 292 and S. 293 (introduced on 1866-05-14 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e899643)

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