Amending America: This Day in History the 14th Amendment Became Law

Today’s post comes from Reagan Library Education Department staffer Brett Robert.

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Page 1 of the Joint Resolution proposing the 14 Amendment.  NARA ID: 1408913

July 28, 1868 is only one of many important dates wrapped up in the history of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.  On that day this amendment which continues to be at the heart of many issues facing our nation was certified by Secretary of State William Seward.   While there is still vigorous debate as to the exact intent of this law in legal and historical circles, many believe one of the main purposes of the law was to extend to all citizens, especially the newly freed slaves, the same protections against State governments which the Bill of Rights granted them against the Federal government.  The Fourteenth Amendment also granted freed slaves citizenship, limited the rights of former Confederates to serve as United States Government officials, repealed the “three-fifths” clause in Article I Section 2 of the United States Constitution, and famously guaranteed equal protection under the law for all citizens.

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Secretary of State William Seward served under both President Abraham Lincoln and his unpopular successor President Andrew Johnson.  NARA ID: 52639

Written during Reconstruction by Radical Republican Representative John Bingham from Ohio, the amendment arose during a time of great tumult and change in United States history and has continued to be at the heart of many of the United States biggest controversies.  You can read more about how the Fourteenth Amendment was a factor in Supreme Court decisions regarding the Defense of Marriage Act, Roe v. Wade, interracial marriage, Chinese immigration, and more here at Pieces of History.  The amendment consists of five sections which address respectively: citizenship, Congressional representation and voting-rights of males, ineligibility for government service as any sort of elected or appointed official by those who have participated in rebellion unless the individual in question is approved for service by a two-thirds majority of each House of Congress, the public debt of the United States and establishing that the United States would not pay the debts of the Confederate government or any other rebellion, and the right of Congress to legislate further to support the amendment.

JR Proposing 14th - 1408913 page 2
Page 2 of the Joint Resolution proposing the 14th Amendment signed by Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, Senate President Pro Tempore Lafayette Foster, Clerk of the House of Representatives Edward McPherson, and Secretary of the Senate John Forney.  NARA ID: 1408913

At the time the amendment was written and passed through Congress, the United States was without a Vice President.  When Abraham Lincoln was shot Andrew Johnson became President, but before the 25th Amendment was adopted in 1967 there was no clear procedure for replacing a Vice President who became President due to the death of the sitting President.  Andrew Johnson was a War Democrat and Southern Unionist who Lincoln, a Republican, had chosen as his running mate in 1864 to signal his commitment to reconciliation with the South as the Civil War was winding down.  Johnson’s Presidency was embattled as he faced hostility from Radical Republicans and the challenge of guiding the nation through some of its darkest hours.  Johnson opposed both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment.  Contentiousness and acrimony reigned in the political climate of 1866 and would go on to haunt Johnson’s only term, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868.  He escaped conviction in the Senate by only one vote.

In these circumstances of spirited debate, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and attempted assassination of Secretary of State William Seward, as the nation recovered from the War Between the States, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution became law.  Debate raged in the years following the war around a number of key issues.  What would happen with the newly freed slaves and what would happen with those who had taken up arms against the United States were the two big questions before Congress and the President.  The Thirteenth Amendment formally abolished slavery but did nothing to secure freed slaves’ status as citizens, guarantee them voting rights, protect their individual rights from abuse by state governments, or establish limits on the rights of former Confederate officials to hold positions of power in the United States government.  To a large extent these issues were addressed in the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Many lawmakers felt that the Fourteenth did not go far enough to guarantee the voting rights of the former slaves, which led to the Fifteenth Amendment.




Section 1.

Section 2.

Section 3.

Section 4.

Section 5.

*Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment.

Read the amendments at the National Archives:

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