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Document #5: The Fourteenth Amendment (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.
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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 power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the
provisions of this article.
Source: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14/
Document # 2: Black Code of South Carolina (1866)
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina That negroes and their issue, even
where one ancestor in each succeeding generation to the fourth inclusive is white, shall be deemed persons of
color.
Sec. 2. …All persons of color who are now inhabitants of this State shall be entitled to the same privileges, and
are subject to the same burdens and disabilities, as by the laws of the State were conferred on, or were attached
to, free persons of color, prior to the ordinance of emancipation, except as the same may be changed by law.
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Sec. 5. …In all cases where men and women, both or one of them were lately slaves and are now emancipated,
now cohabit together in the relation of husband and wife, the parties shall be deemed to have been lawfully
married as man and wife at the time of the commencement of such cohabitation, although they may not have
been married in due form of law.
...
Sec. 7. …All contracts between any persons whatever, whereof one or more of them shall be a person of color,
for the sale or purchase of any horse, mule, ass, jennet, neat cattle, hog, sheep or goat, whatever may be the
value of such articles, and all contracts between such persons for any other article or articles of property
whatever of the value of ten dollars or more … shall be void as to all persons whatever, unless the same be put
in writing and signed by the vendors or debtors, and witnessed by a white person who can read and write…
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Sec. 11. …Any person of color convicted by due course of law of an assault with an attempt to commit rape
upon the body of a white female, shall suffer death.
Source: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-civilwar/5516
Document #1: Andrew Johnson, Amnesty Proclamation, 29 May 1865
To the end, therefore, that the authority of the government of the United States may be restored, and
that peace, order, and freedom may be established, I, ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United
States, do proclaim and declare that I hereby grant to all persons who have, directly or indirectly,
participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, amnesty and pardon, with
restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and except in cases where legal proceedings,
under the laws of the United States providing for the confiscation of property of persons engaged in
rebellion, have been instituted; but upon the condition, nevertheless, that every such person shall
take and subscribe the following oath, (or affirmation,) and thenceforward keep and maintain said
oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the
tenor and effect following, to wit:
I, _______ _______, do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in presence of Almighty God, that I will
henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and
the union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by, and faithfully
support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with
reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.
The following classes of persons are excepted from the benefits of this proclamation: 1st, all who are or shall
have been pretended civil or diplomatic officers or otherwise domestic or foreign agents of the pretended
Confederate government; ... 3d, all who shall have been military or naval officers of said pretended
Confederate government above the rank of colonel in the army or lieutenant in the navy; ... 3th, all persons
who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion, and the estimated value of whose taxable property is over
twenty thousand dollars ...
Provided, That special application may be made to the President for pardon by any person belonging to the
excepted classes; and such clemency will be liberally extended as may be consistent with the facts of the case
and the peace and dignity of the United States.
Source: http://www.sewanee.edu/faculty/Willis/Civil_War/documents/AndrewJ.html
Document #4: Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage By Frederick Douglass
Man is the only government-making animal in the world. His right to a participation in the production and
operation of government is an inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to acquire
property or education. It is no less a crime against the manhood of a man, to declare that he shall not share
in the making and directing of the government under which he lives, than to say that he shall not acquire
property and education. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of
the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. He is a man, and by every fact and argument by
which any man can sustain his right to vote, the negro can sustain his right equally. It is plain that, if the
right belongs to any, it belongs to all. The doctrine that some men have no rights that others are bound to
respect, is a doctrine which we must banish as we have banished slavery, from which it emanated. If black
men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks.
The result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human relations.
But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon
what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. It is a measure of relief,--a shield to break the
force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. The work of destruction has
already been set in motion all over the South. Peace to the country has literally meant war to the loyal men
of the South, white and black; and negro suffrage is the measure to arrest and put an end to that dreadful
strife.
Source: http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/suff.shtml
Document #6: Organization and Principles of the Ku Klux Klan, 1868
Appellation
This organization shall be styled and denominated the Order of the (Ku Klux Klan)
We, the Order of the (KKK), reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of the Divine Being and
recognize the goodness and providence of the same. And we recognize our relation to the United States
government, the supremacy of the Constitution, the constitutional laws thereof, and the Union of states
thereunder.
Character and Objects of the Order
This is an institution of chivalry, humanity, mercy, and patriotism; embodying in its genius and its principles all
that is chivalric in conduct, noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic in purpose; its peculiar
objects being:
First, to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the
lawless, the violent, and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate,
and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers.
Second, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto,
and to protect the states and the people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever.
Third, to aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful
seizure and from trial, except by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land.
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Questions To Be Asked Candidates
1. Have you ever been rejected, upon application for membership in the KKK, or have you ever been expelled
from the same?
2. Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Radical Republican Party, or either of the
organizations known as the "Loyal League" and the "Grand Army of the Republic"?
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5. Are you opposed to Negro equality both social and political?
6. Are you in favor of a white man's government in this country?
…
8. Are you in favor of maintaining the constitutional rights of the South?
9. Are you in favor of the re-enfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the
restitution of the Southern people to all their rights, alike proprietary, civil, and political?
Source: http://www.albany.edu/history/history316/kkk.html
Document #3: Senator Lot Morrill (R-Maine), Speech in Congress, February 1, 1866
I admit that this species of legislation (Civil Rights Act of 1866) is absolutely revolutionary. But are we not in
the midst of a revolution? Is the Senator from Kentucky utterly oblivious to the grand results of four years of
war? Are we not in the midst of a civil and political revolution which has changed the fundamental principles of
our government in some respects? ... There was a civilization based on servitude.... Where is that? ... Gone
forever.... We have revolutionized this Constitution of ours to that extent and every substantial change in the
fundamental constitution of a country is a revolution.