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  1. Overview: United States Fifteenth Amendment
  2. Full Record: United States Fifteenth Amendment
  3. Committee:Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives
  4. Session: 1868-01-30 00:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE_FROM

United States Fifteenth Amendment

Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives

Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives for the Fortieth Session of Congress

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Document introduced in:

Session 7805: 1868-01-30 00:00:00

H. Res. 186 is referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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H. Res. 186

There are 0 proposed amendments related to this document on which decisions have not been taken.

A Joint-Resolution

Declaratory of the rights and powers of the federal and State governments, and the rights of citizenship.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and that it prescribes the duties and defines the power of Congress;

That it is a compact of perpetual union between the States, guaranteeing to each the right of self government;

That it put in motion the federal government and is its only charter powers;

That the federal government was ordained as a part of the State systems of government, and that the State governments are no part of the federal system;

That the Constitution and laws of a State may in many ways be [revealed] inoperative, but that no unlawful combination of citizens can lawfully [question] a State Constitution; That State Constitutions are ordained by the voice of the sovereign people, and will always exist, if the State exists, unless changed by the same power in a lawful manner, or be overthrown by a foreign foe for conquest.

That the ordinances of secession [passed] by the Southern States, were the acts of States, but were unlawful, being a violation of the compact of Union;

That States cannot commit treason;

That Southern citizens who fought within the boundaries of the "so-called" Confederacy did not commit treason;

That no act not punishable when committed can be punished as a crime;

That there can be no citizens of the government of the United States;

That a citizen of a State is a citizen of the United States by virtue of the Constitution of the United States; That the government of the United States has no right over the question of citizenship except through a uniform system of naturalization laws;

That States cannot make citizens;

That the federal government has no power over the question of suffrage;

That the States can confer the right of suffrage on any one;

That none but citizens of the United States can be Senators or Representatives in Congress;

That none but white men were citizens at the time the federal Constitution was adopted, and there being no power of change none but white men can ever be citizens in the United States, except they be the sovereigns or governing class of a State or country [called] to the United States.

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