734 



UNITED STATES. 



UNITED STATES. The restoration of the 

 Southern States to all the rights and privileges 

 of States as coequal members of the Union, 

 received the approval of the executive and ju- 

 dicial branches of the Government at an early 

 period after the cessation of hostilities in 1865. 

 Congress, however, not only withheld its assent, 

 but during its session in June, 1866, had re- 

 quired, as a condition precedent to such recog- 

 nition, the adoption of an amendment to the 

 Federal Constitution, known as Article 14. 

 (/See ANI^TJAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1866, page 194.) 

 This amendment made all persons, born or 

 naturalized within the United States, citizens 

 of the United States and of the State in which 

 they resided. It .required that the privileges 

 and immunities of citizens of the United States 

 should not be abridged by the law of any State ; 

 thus removing all distinctions of color in the 

 enjoyment of citizenship. It was further pro- 

 vided, by section 5 of this amendment, that " the 

 Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro- 

 priate legislation, the provisions of this article." 



The amendment, however, recognized the 

 authority to grant or withhold the elective 

 franchise as existing in the State government; 

 and stipulated that when the right to vote was 

 denied to any of the male inhabitants of a 

 State, such inhabitants, being twenty-one years 

 of age and citizens of the United States, the 

 basis of representation in such State should be 

 proportionally reduced. 



The question really involved in this amend- 

 ment was, the admission to citizenship and the 

 ballot of the negroes in the Southern States. It 

 was the opinion then existing that the authority 

 to determine this question resided in the States 

 severally, and nowhere else. The amendment 

 was submitted to the States at the time of the 

 action of Congress in June, but the Legisla- 

 tures of only a few assembled previous to Janu- 

 ary, 1867. The question was therefore fairly 

 before them at the commencement of the year. 

 The action of these Legislatures up to March 

 2d, when Congress adopted other measures, to- 

 gether with the negro population, as shown by 

 the last general census of 1860, was as follows : 



The number of States which ratified the 

 amendment previous to March 2d was nineteen, 

 and the number which rejected it was twelve. 

 Subsequently Massachusetts ratified on March 

 20th, and Maryland rejected it on March 23d. 



During the session of Congress, and particu- 

 larly in January, 1867, many public meetings 

 of colored people and their friends were held, 

 relative to the elective franchise. On January 

 8th a national convention of colored soldiers 

 and sailors assembled in Philadelphia. Dele- 

 gates were present from Pennsylvania, New 

 York, New Jersey, District of Columbia, Vir- 

 ginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Ohio, Michi- 

 gan, Kansas, and Nebraska. The convention 

 was called "in pursuance of a resolution passed 

 at a meeting of the Colored Soldiers' and Sail- 

 ors' League, held in "Washington on the 10th 

 of September, 1866, wherein a general invita- 

 tion was extended to all colored men who had 

 served in the Union Army or Navy during the 

 war, and " who believe that they have not re- 

 ceived from the Government a due recognition 

 of their services, and who further believe that 

 in sustaining the Union by arms they have now 

 a right to the ballot." 



A series of resolutions was adopted, ac- 

 knowledging "the indebtedness of their race 

 to Almighty God in His manifold blessings in 

 vouchsafing freedom to their enslaved brethren, 

 expressing their thanks to the people of this 

 country and to Congress for their steadfast ex- 

 ertions in their behalf, despite the oppressive 

 measures of the President of the United States ; 

 declaring the denial of the right of suffrage to 

 all American citizens regardless of color was a 

 blasphemous denial of the divine principles 

 upon which all governments are founded ; and 

 demanding the privilege for colored men of 

 holding any positions in the Army or Navy for 

 which their abilities should show them com- 

 petent." 



An address to Congress and the people of the 

 country was prepared, which closes with an 

 appeal to the latter to grant them that which 

 they feel so justly entitled to the exercise of 

 the ballot and the enjoyment of all the privi- 

 leges granted to the white race. 



At Washington, on January llth, a national 

 Equal Rights League Convention of colored 

 men assembled and adopted a series of resolu- 

 tions, and an address to Congress, which was 



