Get Instant Help From 5000+ Experts For
question

Writing: Get your essay and assignment written from scratch by PhD expert

Rewriting: Paraphrase or rewrite your friend's essay with similar meaning at reduced cost

Editing:Proofread your work by experts and improve grade at Lowest cost

And Improve Your Grades
myassignmenthelp.com
loader
Phone no. Missing!

Enter phone no. to receive critical updates and urgent messages !

Attach file

Error goes here

Files Missing!

Please upload all relevant files for quick & complete assistance.

Guaranteed Higher Grade!
Free Quote
wave
Understanding the 14th Amendment: A Foundation for Immigration and Minority History

Purpose

Purpose

The 14th Amendment represents the first time Congress defined who could be, and therefore who could not be, a citizen of the United States of America. Made law in 1868, understanding this very-important Amendment and the debates surrounding it provide a foundation for understanding the history of immigration to the U.S., as well as the experiences of various minority groups in this country.

Questions to Consider

  1. Under Section 1 of the 14thAmendment, who, specifically, could be a citizen of the United States?

  2. What other things does Section 1 of the 14thAmendment guarantee, and to whom does it guarantee them?

  3. Are the guarantees of Section 1 of the 14thAmendment civil liberties, or civil rights?

  4. Based on statements made by Congressmen reproduced in this reading, which political party supported passage of the 14thAmendment and which opposed it?

  5. Why did Congress make approval of the 14thAmendment a necessary requirement for the Southern states to be able to participate in Congress after the Civil War?

  6. What do you think was California’s motivation for not approving the 14thAmendment until 1959?

Reading

When the North won the Civil War in 1865, two very serious and urgent questions needed to be addressed. First, what to do with the Southern states that had rebelled? Eventually, they were allowed back into the Union under very generous terms.

The second question was in many ways the greater of the two: How could the four-million formerly enslaved blacks be incorporated into the life of the nation as free people in a way that would allow them a chance to survive and thrive?

Furthermore, prior to the Civil War, there were 476,748 free blacks living in the United States. Thanks to the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, they were not and could not be citizens.

Adopted on July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was one part of Congress’ attempted solution to the challenges facing African Americans. The first section of the Amendment is reproduced below. It established definitive qualifications for citizenship in the United States in a way never done before:

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.

Today, many citizens take the benefits provided by Section 1 for granted, but in 1868 they were hotly debated in both chambers of Congress. More than seventy versions were drafted, and four were considered by Congress. The following are statements made by legislators during the Congressional debates over Section 1:

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (Republican from Pennsylvania):

Allows Congress to correct the unjust legislation of the states, so far that the law which operates upon one man shall operate equally upon all. Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. Whatever law protects the white man shall afford ‘equal protection’ to the black man.”

Questions to Consider

Rep. Andrew Rogers (Democrat from New Jersey):

“The right to vote is a privilege. The right to marry is a privilege. The right to contract is a privilege. The right to be a juror is a privilege. The right to be a judge or President of United States is a privilege. I hold if [Section 1] ever becomes a part of the fundamental law of the land it will prevent any state from refusing to allow anything to anybody embraced under this term of privileges and immunities. That, sir, will be an introduction to the time when despotism and tyranny will march forth undisturbed and unbroken, in silence and in darkness, in this land which was once the land of freedom.”

Senator Jacob Howard (Republican from Michigan):

“[Section 1] will, if adopted by the states, forever disable every one of them from passing laws trenching upon those fundamental rights and privileges which pertain to citizens of the United States, and to all persons who may happen to be within their jurisdiction.

It establishes equality before the law, and it gives to the humblest, the poorest, the most despised of the race the same rights and the same protection before the law as it gives to the most powerful, the most wealthy, or the most haughty. That, sir, is republican government, as I understand it, and the only one which can claim the praise of a just Government.”

Senator Edgar Cowan (Democrat from Pennsylvania):

“There is a race in contact with this country which, in all characteristic except that of simply making fierce war, is not only our equal but perhaps our superior. I mean the yellow race; the Mongol race. They outnumber us largely. Of their industry, their skill, and their pertinacity in all worldly affairs, nobody can doubt.... They may pour in their millions upon our Pacific Coast in a very short time. Are the states to lose control over this immigration? Is the United States to determine that they are to be citizens?”

In spite of the heated debates, the 14th Amendment passed by a wide margin due to the unique circumstances in Congress after the Civil War: the Senate passed it 33 to 11, the House 138 to 36. There were 36 states in existence at the time, which meant 28 had to ratify, or approve, the Amendment in order for it to become law.

Most of the states that fought for the North ratified it in short order, but Ohio, Oregon, and New Jersey withdrew, or rescinded, their initial approvals. The Southern states that rebelled during the Civil War initially refused to ratify the 14th Amendment, but they all changed their minds and approved it because doing so was a condition for being allowed back into Congress.

It was ratification by either South Carolina or Georgia that provided the twenty-eighth approval needed to make the Amendment part of the Constitution. Maryland and California did not ratify the 14th Amendment for almost a century, until 1959. Kentucky was the last state to issue approval, which it did in 1976.

support
Whatsapp
callback
sales
sales chat
Whatsapp
callback
sales chat
close