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 House of Representatives of the Thirty-Ninth Session of Congress
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W. A. Burleigh enters the House; H. R. 543 is considered
Resolved, That the following resolution, introduced into the House of Representatives December 4, 1862, by Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, expresses the convictions and sense of this House, to wit:
"Resolved, That if any person in the employment of the United States, in either the legislative or executive branch, should propose to make peace or should accept or advise the acceptance of any such proposition on any other basis that the integrity and entire unity of the United States and their Territories as they existed at the time of the rebellion he will be guilty of a high crime."
And that the bill (H. R. No. 543) is clearly in violation of the spirit of said resolution, and that the same does in fact assert or at least admit that secessionists and rebels were successful in the dividing of the Union and destroying certain of the States of the United States as such in the Union and degrading them into Territories; and that Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, in and by the introduction and advocacy of the said bill, has manifested a mind and heart disloyal to the Constitution and the Union of the States as they existed at the time of the rebellion, and is guilty of the crime specified in the resolution, and therefore deserves the reprobation of this House.