bellion 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. SECT. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. Therefore, resolved, That the said proposed amendment to the Constitution be, and the same is hereby ratified by the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Resolved, That certified copies of the foregoing preamble and resolution be forwarded by the Governor to the President of the United States, to the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate, and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. H. R., March 15, 1867. Sent up for concurrence. In Senate, March 20, 1867. Passed in concurrence. Passed. W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. STEPHEN N. GIFFORD, Clerk. Sir: State of Nebraska, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Omaha, October 10th 1867 I have the honor to transmit herewith, an attested copy of a Joint Resolution of the Legislature of this State, ratifying the amendment proposed by Congress as a Fourteenth Article of the Constitution of the United States. Ratifying the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Whereas the Congress of the United States has proposed to the Legislatures of the several States the following Article as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, namely: ARTICLE XIV. 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. SEC 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 any 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 crimes, 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. SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President or 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. SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for the 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. SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. Therefore, Be it Resolved, By the Legislature of the State of Nebraska, that the said Article, as such proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, be, and the same is hereby ratified. Passed June 15th, 1867. W. F. CHAPIN, Speaker of the House. E. H. ROGERS, State of Nebraska, SS. SECRETARY'S OFFICE. I, T. P. Kennard, Secretary of the State of Nebraska, do hereby certify that I have carefully compared the foregoing copy of a joint resolution, entitled: "A Joint Resolution Ratifying the proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States," passed by the Legislative Assembly of this State, on the fifteenth day of June, 1867, with the orig inal rolls on file in this office, and that the same is a true and perfect copy of said Joint Resolution. [SEAL.] In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of Nebraska, this twentieth day of August, A. D., 1867. THOMAS P. KENNARD Secretary of the State of Nebraska. |