The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-10-10
RALEIGH, N. c., WEDNESDAY,

&
ed, even by the press, through which it
ought to be published for the peopleq
It is in the words and sections following,
to wit:
ARTICLE IA.
SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized
in the United States, and subject to the ju-
risdiction 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 immu-
mites 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 juris-
diction the equal protection of the laws
Sec. 2. Representatives shall be appor-
toned among the several States according
to their respective numbers, counting the
whole number of persons in each State, ex-
Guiding 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 Statss, representatives in Con-
gress, the executive and judicial officers of q
State, or the members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabi-
tants of such State, being twenty-one years
ofage and citizens of the United States, or in
any way abridged except for participation
in rebellion or other crime, the basis Of rep
resentation 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.
SEC. 8. No person shall be Senator or
Representative in Congress, or elector OF Pres
ident 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
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 rebell-
ion against the same, or given aid or comfort
to the enemies thereof. But Congress may,
by vote of two thirds of each House, re-
move such disability.
Sec. A. The validity of the public debt
of the United States, authorized by law, in
cluding debts incurred for payment of pen
sions and bounties for services in suppressing
insurrection or rebellion, shall not be ques-
toned. But neither the United States nor
any CldtC Sildu doSuAiC vi pay duy uOOe oi
obligation incurred in aid of insurrectiOn or
rebellion against the United States, or any
claim for the loss or emancipation ofany
slave but all such debts, obligations, and
claims shall be held illegal and void.
Sec 5. The Congress shall have power
to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the
provisions of this article.
The whole amendment would seem to be
SO plain and so easy of comprehension as to
require no exposition, except with view to
answering objects which have been made to it.
The first section defines citizenship, which
has hitherto been undefnes in our written
Constitution The objection urged IS that,
"persons of color " arc comprehended with
in this definition This is true and is it not
also just to this class of persons, as well as
proper, in regard to relative rights, privile-
ges and immunities of all persons and Sec
tions of the country
All persons born or naturalized in the Uni
ted States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof. should be citizens of the United States
and ofthe States wherein they reside. a
No State can make person Il citizen. A
free negro was held not to be citizen of the
United States oy decision of the Supreme
SOuii, piCNAOus W tHC iCDCtAiOh. ouSu PSA-
son was held to be, if born in the State,
citizen of North Carolina, previous to the
same Then, all slaves were not citizens OF
any State OF of the United States, but being
now free, they all, "persons of color" might
be held to be entitled to none OF the priv
ileges and emoluments of citizens OF the sew
eral States" Such political status fixed
for this class or species of men, 10y the Courts,
would subject them to kind or serfdom
worse than slavery. in sections of the coun-
try where they are now, for the most part,
living, and would forbid their migration to
other sections, and their dispersion among
the masses of the people of other States, con-
tanning very few of this class of population.
Considerations of policy, as well sjustice,
require the ratification of the amendment as
to this section, the remainder of which is al
ready substantially incorporated in the Con-
stitution.
If it be urged again that this section is, as
it has been asserted, in regard to the whole
amendment, designed to lead to negro suf-
frage in North Carolina, the reply of the
National Union Executive Committee" Is,
Not So" The question as to the qualifica-
tion of electors, who shall be voters, is now
by the Constitution, and will be by the
amendment, with the people of the State to
determine for themselves
A conflict of law, as well as of public
opinion, will have been settled by the in
corporation of this provision in the funda-
mental law.
Section second contains the material and
practical portion of the amendment. 1t may
have been designed-its tendency certainly
is, to secure equal ty of suffrage, but, it does
not compel or require it.
Representatives shall be apportioned ac-
cording to the whole number of persons lex
Guiding Indians not taxed'D in the State, if
the people so will but. if they choose to de-
ny " to any of their male inhabitants, white
or colored, " the right to vote at any cleo
ton for the choice of electors" &C., &C., "or
in any way abridge that right as to such in
habitants being twenty-one years of age, ex-
cept for participation in rebellion or other
crime, then 1.-THE basis of representation shall
be reduced in the proportion which the num-
Der of such male citizens (white and colored)
shall bear to the whole number of male citi-
zens (white and colered twenty-one years of
age in the State" The State may grant the
right to vote to all persons of color" and
thereby gain three representatives in Con-
gress after the session which shall succeed the
census in 1870, or it may deny it to all such
persons, and be entitled to five representa-
tive, losing three, or it may grant limited
suffrage to any number less than the whole
upon basis Of intelligence or property quail
ifcation, and thereby increase its representa-
tion to six or seven.
Is not the principle contained in this sec
ton just, and if SO can any power, or party,
society or State hope to gain by opposing it