Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2: From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860Blaine, James Gillespie
History
Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2: From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860
Blaine, James Gillespie
United States -- History; United States -- History -- 1865-1898
When the Senate proceeded to consider the Constitutional amendment it
soon became evident that it could not be adopted in the form in which
it came from the House. The first important change was suggested by
Mr. Howard of Michigan on behalf of the Senate members of the Joint
Committee on Reconstruction. He proposed to prefix these words to the
first clause of the amendment: "All persons born in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States and of the States wherein they reside." Mr. Doolittle moved
to insert "excluding Indians not taxed," but Mr. Howard made a
pertinent reply that "Indians born within the limits of the United
States, who maintain their tribal affiliations, are not in the sense
of this amendment _born subject to the jurisdiction of the United
States._" Mr. Doolittle's amendment was supported by only ten senators
on a call of the _ayes_ and _noes_, and the amendment proposed by Mr.
Howard was then agreed to without division. Mr. Howard next proposed
to amend the second section of the constitutional amendment by striking
out the word "citizens" and inserting "inhabitants, being citizens of
the United States." This was done, as Mr. Fessenden explained, "to
prevent a State from saying that though a person is a citizen of the
United States he is not a citizen of the State, and to make it conform
to the first clause as just amended."
Mr. Howard offered next to change the third clause as it came from the
House by inserting a substitute, which is precisely that which became
formally incorporated in the amendment as it passed. Mr. Hendricks of
Indiana moved to amend by inserting after the word "shall" the words
"during the term of his office," so as to read, "shall, during the term
of his office, have engaged in insurrection or rebellion." Mr.
Hendricks understood "the idea upon which this section rests, to be
that men who held office, and upon assuming the office took the oath
prescribed by the Constitution, became obligated by that oath to stand
by the Constitution and the oath," and that "going into the Rebellion
was not only a breach of their allegiance but a breach of their oath,"
and that "persons who had violated the oath to support the Constitution
of the United States ought not to be allowed to hold any office." Mr.
Howard hoped the amendment would not be adopted. "If," said he, "I
understand the senator from Indiana right, he holds that although a
person may have taken that Constitutional oath, if he has not committed
insurrection during the continuance of the term of his office, but
committed that act after the expiration of that term, the previous
taking of the oath by him adds to the act no additional moral guilt. I
do not concur with him in that view. It seems to me that where a
person has taken a solemn oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, there is a fair implication that he cannot afterwards
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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