THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT 207 



sions incident thereto shall remain inviolate." On June 8th Senator 

 Clark moved the substitution of the section as it now stands. This 

 was merely changing the phraseology and the motion was agreed to 

 without opposition. 



The resolution as amended by the Senate was taken up for con- 

 sideration by the House on June 13th, and the amendments were 

 concurred in after a short debate. The resolution was then ready to 

 go before the states for ratification as the Fourteenth Amendment. 



Interest was centered on the action which should be taken by the 

 insurrectionary states. The North was not long left in doubt. Texas, 

 Georgia and Florida were the first to consider the amendment. All 

 promptly rejected it and within a few weeks the entire South includ- 

 ing the three loyal states of Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky had 

 refused to ratify.^') No one could be surprised at this result. The 

 negro population in all of these states was very large. The senti- 

 ment against granting the franchise was extremely strong while the 

 penalty of decreased representation in case of discrimination against 

 the negro was exceedingly distasteful. The disabling clause, affect- 

 ing as it did a great many of the most prominent Southerners, was 

 very unpopular and was widely felt to be unjust. A large majority 

 of all the legislatures felt that it would be little short of odious for 

 them to vote in favor of such a proposition. The provision practically 

 requiring them to repudiate their debts would of itself have caused 

 violent opposition. Many claimed that so far as possible they should 

 be permitted to pay their debts without interference. These and other 

 reasons, combined with the natural bitterness already existing towards 

 Congress which was only intensified by its attitude during the debates 

 then in progress over the Reconstruction Bill, made any other result 

 impossible. 



The rejection in turn reflected on the attitude of Congress toward 

 the South, an attitude which found expression in Section 5 of the 

 first Keconstruction Bill. It was there declared among the prece- 

 dents necessary to the reconstruction of a state and the admission of 

 its representatives to Congress that the state should ratify the 



(1) McPherson, History of the Reconstruction, p. 194. 



