Foner details the debates, which naturally included demands from slave owners for financial compensation for their lost property, but the committees working on the drafts managed to pare it down to a basic statement. In retrospect the exceptional clause has been repeatedly criticized. It's the rationale for prison labor. Need some road work done cheaply? Chain gangs. Or, a more modern example, need furniture for schools and state hospitals? Prison work shops. Or, as I read about not long ago, an airline reservation call center operating out of a prison, which really had me wondering about stuff like how secure is your credit card number when the person asking for it is sitting behind bars. But that's a digression. The exceptionalism clause wasn't seen as much of an issue in 1865; it took decades of Jim Crow and rising awareness of places like Angola (notorious Louisiana prison farm) for people to realize the exceptionalism clause has led to some horrific abuses. In any case, after both houses of Congress passed it, the amendment went to the states for ratification. Twenty-seven were needed for passage; there were 30 ratifications submitted before the end of December 1865. A few states were a little slow -- naturally, Mississippi was last, with the formal paperwork from Mississippi submitted in 2013. (And no doubt there are some Mississippians who think they could have waited a few more years.)
The 14th and 15th amendments did not sail through the process as quickly or as easily as the 13th. The 14th has been in the news a lot lately. It's the birthright citizenship amendment. In reading about the debates a number of oddities struck me. One was that for some Congress critters that big problem with affirming birthright citizenship wasn't that anyone black and born in the United States would automatically be a citizen, it was that birthright citizenship could apply to children born to Chinese laborers in California or Nevada or, possibly even worse, the children born to drunken Irish immigrants. In 1868 there were a lot of Chinese laborers in California. They were, as immigrants so often do, working at jobs sufficiently dangerous or arduous that most white guys wouldn't do them. In retrospect, the paranoia about the Chinese suddenly forming a voting bloc seems rather stupid. There may have been 50,000 adult men laboring on railroads and at other unpleasant tasks, but there weren't very many women immigrating -- and even if there were the amount of time from the amendment's passage to when new natural born citizens would be eligible to vote (age 21) seems like plenty of time for politicians to figure out how to manipulate the masses.
The nervousness about the drunken Irish was an East Coast issue. Prejudice against the Irish was common in all the major cities. Despite Ireland being part of the United Kingdom at the time, the Irish were never seen as safely English. The Irish did not speak the King's English -- many no doubt were comfortable only in Gaelic -- and, even worse, they were Papists, the dreaded Roman Catholics who answered to the Pope, who was labeled by some American Protestant leaders as a despot. Again, in retrospect it seems rather odd, but while prejudice against the Irish has disappeared over time there is still a lot of fundamentalist Protestant prejudice against Catholics. (A minor digression, but I know people who were raised in a fundamentalist tradition -- not exactly snake-handling Pentecostal Holiness types, but close -- who were/are convinced Catholics worship idols because of the statues of saints in churches.)
There was also discussion about Native Americans, but Congress concluded that if a Native American belonged to a recognized tribe that tribe was a sovereign nation and that's where a Native American's citizenship lay. Ergo, U.S. citizenship was a nonissue for indigenous persons.
In any case, the important part of the amendment, Article 1, does three things: it says if you're born in the U.S., you're a citizen. As a citizen you are entitled to equal protection under the law, and, third, states can't take rights away without due process. The other sections of the amendment were basically cleaning up some issues after the war such as Article 3 saying if you'd rebelled (i.e., been in the Confederate army or government) you couldn't run for federal office (no convincing your fellow traitors that you belonged in Congress). Article 3 is often referred to as the insurrection clause; it's the clause some activists tried to use against Donald Trump running for a second term because he'd encouraged the January 6, 2021, rioters at the Capitol. The intent in 1868, of course, was to prevent the asshats who had been stupid enough to drag multiple states into seceding and causing a war from trying to get back into political power and doing something equally stupid again. And it worked, at least briefly, but mainly because Congress also passed the Reconstruction Act for the Confederate states. Reconstruction lasted until the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes effectively ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops, which is a subject for a different post.
The 15th amendment provided the right to vote to all citizens regardless of race or ethnicity. The wording is succinct -- "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." -- and is notable for what it omits (gender). Gender was debated, but apparently giving ladies the right to vote along with former slaves was a bridge too far for male legislators in the late 1860s. Not surprisingly, some of the same objections to the 14th admendment were recycled to argue against the 15th: omigod the Irish might vote! What about the Chinese? It probably helped that states would still control voting (when, where, limiting eligibility through requiring literacy tests or poll taxes, all of which and more states did in attempts to limit who actually got to vote). The amendment passed both houses of Congress in 1869 and was sent to the states for ratification, which took less than a year.
So what did I learn from this book other than the basic facts? Well, it's pretty clear that there will always be some shit weasels politicians who worry a lot more about hanging on to their Congressional seat than they do about what's good for the country. It's also clear that the current criticisms of birthright citizenship aren't new. They're recycled bigotry from the 1860s. Ditto voting rights. There have always been and probably always will be people who think the ideal voting population consists of one person: one rich guy who's willing to subsidize your preferred lifestyle. Therefore the goal becomes to make voting harder, thus thinning the voting pool. Ecclesiastes 1:9.
Sadly bigotry and some people's biases will always exist and be rehashed over time. My Dad was Native American and even I wasn't fully aware until much later that many Tribal folks were not considered wholly American Citizens even when my Parents Married in the early 1950's. My Dad's Military Commanding Officer tried to talk my Welsh Mom out of marrying an Indian, citing how hard it would be for her in the U.S., both as a recent Immigrant from a Country most Americans weren't even familiar with, but also having an Interracial as well as an Intercultural Marriage. My Dad never Voted, he felt all Politicians never Represented any of his People, but he considered all of American Soil so Sacred he Served 27 Years in the Military even while it was still Segregated and he had to be in mostly Black Units. So many of the Rights have been so hard fought for and Won that it troubles me they are being so quickly rolled back now for Women, Minorities, the Disabled, the LGBTQ+ Community, Immigrants, and even Children now whose Birthright is being Questioned. We're devolving rather than evolving and it makes me concerned for the America our Children, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren will inherit and have to run so much damage control behind. I didn't used to ever discuss Politics or Religion with anyone... but now you have to challenge what is unacceptable and often inhumane that is being sanctioned by both Politics and some extremists of some Religions.
ReplyDeleteWhile on vacation in Oregon, I learned only Chinese men were allowed into the USA. Chinese women were prohibited from migrating to USA. These Chinese men were not allowed on city streets, so they build underground towns/cities. We toured these underground towns and they had everything, bars, restaurants, laundry, barber shops, grocery stores, etc. It was pretty interesting how people survived. Now many Anglo folks adopted Chinese girl babies since China restricted their citizens to one child. So most girl babies were abandoned for a boy baby in China. And, yes inter-marriage was restricted here in the USA. You had to get permission to marry say a white person wishing to marry a Native American as late as the 1950s. I know this because my friend's parents had to get permission from Arizona state to get married. He was Navajo and she a white woman. Her family disowned her so she lived with her husband on the Navajo Reservation. As they got older, the Navajo man bought an acre of land outside the reservation and built a house on it for his wife should he die before his wife. Their adult daughter is my good friend. On the other hand, my sister married a Czech man when she was 17 years old. My Navajo father refused to give permission for her to marry not only because she was underage but my dad believed one should marry within their own race for the marriage to work. Long story short, a priest convinced my dad to give permission to avoid 'living in sin.' My dad gave the Czech man and his family ultimatum...a marriage contract back in the day when it was unheard of. The Czech family and groom had to sign the marriage contract saying the groom would always provide for the family since the groom was taking away her chance to continue school and higher education and to rise to her full potential.
ReplyDeleteMy European Mom required "Permission" to Marry my Native American Dad in the early 1950's. And my Welsh Mom was required to be fluent enough in English to be allowed into the Country, her first language was Gaelic. So they had a very long Engagement in order for the Permission Structure to approve of their Union. Of coarse most of Society didn't anyway, it's just the way things are.
DeleteMost injustices are recycled ones, aren't they? And sadly, the prejudices, biases and Hatreds are recycled too, it's all not 'new'.
ReplyDeleteA class in U.S. government should be required for graduation from high school.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard