Amendment XV
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other objective of this section was to enhance the political power of ‘‘carpetbaggers’’ and ‘‘scalawags,’’ who could be counted upon to support
the policies of the Radical Republicans.
President Andrew Johnson opposed this provision on the ground that
it improperly restricted his power to pardon the leaders of the Confederacy and restore their political and civil rights. Not until 1898 did Congress pass legislation removing the disability.
Inspired by the desire to remove all doubt concerning the validity of financial obligations incurred by the Federal government during the Civil
War, Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment simply reaffirmed the debts
of the Union and invalidated those of the Confederacy.
This Section forbids both Federal and State governments to pay any
debts contracted by a State that belonged to the Confederacy, ‘‘or any
claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave.’’ (This latter prohibition
of payment applied to slaves and slave owners in the ‘‘loyal free States,’’
as well as to those in the ‘‘rebellious States’’—in effect, denying the guarantee that no property shall be taken without just compensation.)
With the Fourteenth Amendment, the powers of the several States began to dwindle. For the defeated eleven States that had joined the Confederacy to be readmitted to the Union, they were required first to ratify
this Fourteenth Amendment, much though the people of those eleven
States might dislike its provisions. Also, there were loud complaints in
most southern States that political trickery and intimidation had been
employed to secure ratification of the Amendment. About Amendment
XIV, then, hangs a cloud; and interpretation of that Amendment continues to be controversial in today’s courts.
e . a m e n d m e n t x v (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 power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
This is the third and last Civil War or Reconstruction Amendment. Its
original purpose was to extend the franchise to the newly emancipated