The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

The Meaning to the
Thirteenth through Fifteenth Amendments
to the US Constitution

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed as a result of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It had become apparent that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had become inadequate to protect the "Human Rights" of all the people within the United States. Whether by the creation of laws, misinterpretations of law, or machinations by government officials, the Human Rights of the newly freed slaves, and the previously free negro people, were being violated.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed to end these laws, misinterpretations, and machinations, and to explicitly state these Human Rights. However, all Constitutional amendments may be subject to interpretation. But this interpretation may not encroach on our Human Rights but must reside within our Human Rights. The 1st through 10th amendments to the United States Constitution was adopted to cover some of our Human Rights, while the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were adopted to expound on our Human Rights.

The 13th Amendment (the abolition of slavery) and the 15th Amendment (the right to vote) to the Constitution are rather straightforward. The 14th Amendment, however, has often been misinterpreted and eviscerated by Supreme Court rulings. For it is this Amendment that allows the Federal government to intervene in State affairs regarding elections and the protection of the Constitutional rights of its citizens. This Amendment was passed to allow the Federal government the Constitutional authority for the Reconstruction of those States that rebelled against the Federal government in the Civil War. These Amendments instituted the "Reconstruction Era" in United States history.

The Reconstruction era was the period in American history that lasted from 1863 to 1877 following the American Civil War (1861–65) and is a significant chapter in the history of American civil rights. Reconstruction ended the remnants of Confederate secession and abolished slavery, making the newly freed slaves' citizens with civil rights ostensibly guaranteed by three new constitutional amendments. Reconstruction also refers to the attempt to transform the 11 Southern former Confederate states, as directed by Congress, and the role of the Union states in that transformation.

Almost immediately after it was passed, the former rebellious States began to eviscerate this Amendment with legislation intended to circumvent its intent, and with Supreme Court rulings that misinterpreted, misapplied, and thwarted its intent. Thus, the former rebellious States were able to institute "Jim Crow laws" and other discriminatory acts against its black citizens. The era of discrimination and Jim Crow laws began, which ended with the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" Supreme Court decision and the passage of the "Civil Rights Act of 1964".

These amendments extended the foundation for the "Full Faith and Credit Clause of The U.S. Constitution and The Equal Protection of The Law Doctrine" and "Justice and The Rule of Law in America" in the United States, as explicitly stated in The Bill of Rights, and as explained in my articles, "The Meaning of the 1st and 2nd Amendments", "The Meaning of the 3rd through 8th Amendments", and the "The Meaning of the 9th and 10th Amendments". Specifically, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments extended the right to not be enslaved nor live in a state of involuntary servitude, or deny citizenship, or for citizens to vote for their representatives was enshrined as a natural right. Also, the Constitutional rights of the citizens of a State could not be infringed by a State. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments must be cherished and protected as much we do with the Bill of Rights. To not do so is to impact the "Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All" Americans.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States Constitution states:

Amendment XIII
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

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.

Section 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 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 crime, 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.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President 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 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.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for 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.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

*Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment.

Amendment XV
Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--

Section 2.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.