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Revised Statutes
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Historical SummaryVARIOUS propositions to amend the Constitution were submitted in both House and Senate during the first session of the thirty-ninth Congress. A joint resolution embodying the substance of the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment was reported in the House April 30, 1866, by Thaddeus Stevens, from the Committee on Reconstruction, together with a bill for admission to representation of certain States ratifying the same. May 10 the resolution passed the House, the vote being 128 to 37, 18 not voting. The third section of the House resolution provided that until July 4, 1870, all persons who had voluntarily aided the rebellion should he denied the privilege of voting for Representatives in Congress or presidential electors. The Senate, by a vote of 43 to 0, struck out this section, and recast the amendment in the form in which it was later submitted. The resolution passed the Senate June 8, by a vote of 33 to 11. On the 13th the House, by a vote of 138 to 36, 10 not voting, concurred. The amendment was rejected by Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky, and was not acted on by California. It was also at first rejected by Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, with the result that the ratification of the amendment was, by the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, made a condition of the restoration of those States. The ratifications of New Jersey and Ohio were rescinded by the legislatures of those States. July 20, 1868, a proclamation by Seward announced that the amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-three States, and "by newly constituted and newly established bodies avowing themselves to be and acting as the legislatures of" North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas; and that if the ratifications of New Jersey and Ohio "be deemed as remaining of full force and effect," the amendment was in force. Thereupon Congress, by resolution of July 21, declared the amendment in force and directed its promulgation as such. The final proclamation was issued July 28. REFERENCES. — Text in House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., and 40th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The various proclamations are in U.S. Statutes at Large, XV. For some early proposals see McPherson, Reconstruction, 103. See also Guthrie, Fourteenth Amendment; Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wallace, 36; Johnson’s message of June 22, 1866. Many disabilities under the amendment were removed by special acts; for the general act of May 22, 1872, see No. 173, post.
No. 161.
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution
July 28, 1868
ARTICLE XIV.
SEC. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State 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 property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one 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 twenty-one years of age in such State.
SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in 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 appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Contents:
Chicago: "Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution," Revised Statutes in Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913, ed. William MacDonald (1863-1938) (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916), 537–538. Original Sources, accessed April 11, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=PV9AJPPWLUUUGHY.
MLA: . "Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution." Revised Statutes, in Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913, edited by William MacDonald (1863-1938), New York, The Macmillan Company, 1916, pp. 537–538. Original Sources. 11 Apr. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=PV9AJPPWLUUUGHY.
Harvard: , 'Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution' in Revised Statutes. cited in 1916, Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913, ed. , The Macmillan Company, New York, pp.537–538. Original Sources, retrieved 11 April 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=PV9AJPPWLUUUGHY.
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