| Amendments
13-15 are called the Reconstruction Amendments both because they
were the first enacted right after the Civil War and because all
addressed questions related to the legal and political status
of the African Americans.
AMENDMENT XIII
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December
6, 1865.
Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution
was superseded by the 13th amendment.
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
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AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July
9, 1868.
Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified
by section 2 of the 14th amendment.
Section 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.
Section 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.
Section 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.
Section 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.
Section 5.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.
*Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment.
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AMENDMENT XV
Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified
February 3, 1870.
Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--
Section 2.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
Source: Amendments 11-27, U.S. National Archives
and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html
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