Executive Order 7

by President of the United States

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS MAY COME, GREETING:

Whereas by an act of Congress passed on the twentieth of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the United States and for other purposes," it is declared that whenever official notice shall have been received at the Department of State that any amendment where heretofore has been and hereafter may be proposed to the Constitution of the United States has been adopted according to the provisions of the Constitution, it shall be the duty of the said Secretary of State forthwith to cause the said amendment to be published in the newspapers authorized to promulgate the laws, with his certificate, specifying the States by which the same may have been adopted, and that the same has become valid, to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States.

And whereas the Congress of the United States, on or about the sixteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, submitted to the legislatures of the several States a proposed amendment to the Constitution in the following words, to wit:

"JOINT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

"Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two thirds of both Houses concurring), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the constitution, 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.

"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 power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

"SCHUYLER COLFAX,

"Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"LA FAYETTE S. FOSTER,

"President of the Senate pro tempore.

"Attest:

"Edwd. McPherson,

"Clerk of the House of Representatives.

"J. W. Forney,

"Secretary of the Senate."

And whereas the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, on the twenty-first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, adopted and transmitted to the Department of State a concurrent resolution, which concurrent resolution is in the words and figures following, to wit;—

"In Senate of the United States,
"July 21, 1868.

"Whereas the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana, being three fourths and more of the several States of the Union, have ratified the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, duly proposed by two thirds of each House of the Thirty-ninth Congress; therefore,

“Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring,) That said fourteenth article is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State.

"Attest:

GEO. C. GORHAM, Secretary.

"In the House of Representatives,
" July 21, 1868.

"Resolved, That the House of Representatives concur in the foregoing concurrent resolution of the Senate ‘declaring the ratification of the fourteenth article of amendment of the Constitution of the United States.'

"Attest:

EDWD. McPHERSON, Clerk."

And whereas official notice has been received at the Department of State that the legislatures of the several States next hereinafter named have, at the times respectively herein mentioned, taken the proceedings hereinafter recited upon or in relation to the ratification of the said proposed amendment, called article fourteenth, namely:

The legislature of Connecticut ratified the amendment June 30th, 1866; the legislature of New Hampshire ratified it July 7th, 1866; the legislature of Tennessee ratified it July 19th, 1866; the legislature of New Jersey ratified it September 11th, 1866, and the legislature of the same State passed a resolution in April, 1868, to withdraw its consent to it; the legislature of Oregon ratified it September 19th, 1866; the legislature of Texas rejected it November 1st, 1866; the legislature of Vermont ratified it on or previous to November 9th, 1866; the legislature of Georgia rejected it November 13th, 1866, and the legislature of the same State ratified it July 21st, 1868; the legislature of North Carolina rejected it December 4th, 1866, and the legislature of the same State ratified it July 4th, 1868; the legislature of South Carolina rejected it December 20th, 1866, and the legislature of the same State ratified it July 9th, 1868; the legislature of Virginia rejected it January 9th, 1867; the legislature of Kentucky rejected it January 10th, 1867; the legislature of New York ratified it January 10th, 1867; the legislature of Ohio ratified it January 11th, 1867, and the legislature of the same State passed a resolution in January, 1868, to withdraw its consent to it; the legislature of Illinois ratified it January 15th, 1867; the legislature of West Virginia ratified it January 16th, 1867; the legislature of Kansas ratified it January 18th, 1867; the legislature of Maine ratified it January 19th, 1867; the legislature of Nevada ratified it January 22d, 1867; the legislature of Missouri ratified it on or previous to January 26th, 1867; the legislature of Indiana ratified it January 29th, 1867; the legislature of Minnesota ratified it February 1st, 1867; the legislature of Rhode Island ratified it February 7th, 1867 ; the legislature of Delaware rejected it February 7th, 1867; the legislature of Wisconsin ratified it February 13th, 1867; the legislature of Pennsylvania ratified it February 13th, 1867; the legislature of Michigan ratified it February 15th, 1867; the legislature of Massachusetts ratified it March 20th, 1867; the legislature of Maryland rejected it March 23d, 1867; the legislature of Nebraska ratified it June 15th, 1867; the legislature of Iowa ratified it April 3d, 1868; the legislature of Arkansas ratified it April 6th, 1868; the legislature of Florida ratified it June 9th, 1868; the legislature of Louisiana ratified it July 9th, 1868; and the legislature of Alabama ratified it July 13th, 1868.

Now, therefore, be it known that I, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, in execution of the aforesaid act, and of the aforesaid concurrent resolution of the 21st of July, 1868, and in conformance thereto, do hereby direct the said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States to be published in the newspapers authorized to promulgate the laws of the United States, and I do hereby certify that the said proposed amendment has been adopted in the manner hereinbefore mentioned by the States specified in the said concurrent resolution, namely, the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, and also by the legislature of the State of Georgia; the States thus specified being more than three fourths of the States of the United States.

And I do further certify that the said amendment has become valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-third.

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.