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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 House of Representatives
  4. Session: 1867-01-07 12:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE

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 House of Representatives

The House of Representatives of the Thirty-Ninth Session of Congress

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Document introduced in:

Session 8672: 1867-01-07 12:00:00

The House continues to consider H. R. 543

Document View:

H. Res. 228

(Showing state at moment e62674)
There is 1 proposed amendment related to this document on which a decision has not been taken.

JOINT RESOLUTION

Declaratory of the meaning of the thirteenth amendment of the Constitution.

Whereas the Congress of the United States at the second session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, proposed to the several States for adoption the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which has now, by the ratification of three fourths of the States of the Union, become part of this Constitution, and which by its terms forever prohibits slavery or involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted;" and whereas in some parts of this Union it is asserted and maintained that, notwithstanding said amendment, it is lawful to sell or otherwise commit into unofficial subjection to slavery persons who may be convicted of offenses against the law, by reason whereof certain inferior tribunals have adjudged free citizens of the United States to be so disposed of as to re-establish chattel slavery for life or for years, against the principles of the Christian religion, of civilization, and of the Constitution of the United States, which now recognizes no involuntary servitude, except to the law and to the officers of its administration: Now therefore,

Be it resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the true intent and meaning of said amendment prohibits slavery or involuntary servitude forever in all forms, except in direct execution of a sentence imposing a definite penalty according to law, which penalty cannot, without violation of the Constitution, impose any other servitude than that of imprisonment or other restraint of freedom under the immediate control of officers of the law and according to the usual course thereof, to the exclusion of all unofficial control of the person so held in servitude; and that all orders, judgments, or decrees authorizing or directing the sale or other disposition into servitude of any person within the jurisdiction of the United States otherwise than as above declared to be lawful, are and shall be taken and held to be in violation of the thirteenth constitutional amendment aforesaid, and therefore void.

Decisions yet to be taken

  • H. Res. 228 (introduced on 1867-01-07 12:00:00 - CREATE - e903604) [This document]
  • S. 1 (introduced on 1867-01-08 12:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e870377)

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