A BILL

To provide for restoring to the States lately in insurrection their full political rights.

Whereas it is expedient that the States lately in insurrection should, at the earliest day consistent with the future peace and safety of the Union, be restored to full participation in all political rights; and whereas the Congress did, by joint resolution, propose for ratification to the legislatures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, an article in the following words, to wit:

"ARTICLE —.

"SECTION 1. All persons (Indians not taxed excepted) born within the limits or under the jurisdiction of the United States, and all persons naturalized under its laws, are, and shall be, both citizens of the United States and citizens of the several States within which they reside, and no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of such citizens; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; not deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

"SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever, in any State, the elective franchise shall be denied to any portion of its male citizens not less than twenty-one years of age, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation in such State shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens not less than twenty-one years of age.

"SECTION 3. Neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation already incurred, or which may hereafter be incurred, in aid of insurrection or of war against the United States, or any claim for compensation for loss of involuntary service or labor.

"SECTION 4. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article:"

Now, therefore—

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That until the fourth day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy, all persons who voluntarily adhered to the late insurrection, giving it aid and comfort, shall be excluded from the right to vote for representatives in Congress and for electors for President and Vice-President of the United States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That no person shall be eligible to any office under the government of the United States who is included in any of the following classes, namely:

First. The president and vice-president of the Confederate States of America, so called, and the heads of departments thereof.

Second. Those who in other countries acted as agents of the Confederate States of America, so called.

Third. Heads of departments of the United States, officers of the army and navy of the United States, and all persons educated at the military or naval academy of the United States, judges of the courts of the United States, and members of either house of the thirty-sixth Congress of the United States, who gave aid or comfort to the late rebellion.

Fourth. Those who acted as officers of the Confederate States of America, so called, above the grade of colonel in the army or master in the navy; and any one who, as governor of either of the so-called Confederate States, gave aid or comfort to the late rebellion.

Fifth. Those who have treated officers or soldiers or sailors of the army or navy of the United States, captured during the late war, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever the above-recited amendment shall have become part of the Constitution of the United States, and any State lately in insurrection shall have ratified the same, and shall have modified its constitution and laws in conformity therewith, and shall have consented by an ordinance irrevocable to the conditions of the first and second sections of this act, senators and representatives from such State, if found duly elected and qualified, may, after having taken the required oaths of office, be admitted into Congress as such.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That instead of the terms and conditions named in the first, second, and third sections of this act, the following alternative is hereby submitted, viz: That each of said States whose people were lately in insurrection as aforesaid, shall be recognized as having fully and validly resumed its former relations with this government, and its chosen representatives shall be admitted into the two houses of the national legislature, and a general amnesty shall be proclaimed in regard to all persons in such State who were in any way connected with armed opposition to the government of the United States, and they shall be wholly exonerated from all pains, penalties, test oaths, or other disabilities to which they may have become liable by reason of their connexion with the rebellion, whenever said State shall have ratified the said above-recited amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and shall have modified its constitution and laws in conformity therewith, and shall also have extended the elective franchise by an amendment to its constitution and laws to all classes of citizens without discrimination because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude upon the same terms and conditions: Provided, That in case any State shall impose other restrictive qualifications on suffrage than such as are founded upon race, color, or previous condition of servitude, such restrictions need not apply to persons now voters unless such State shall elect to make such qualifications applicable to all persons: And provided further, That no person shall be eligible to any office under the government of the United States who is included in any of the following classes, namely:

First. The president and vice-president of the Confederate States of America, so called.

Second. Heads of departments of the United States and members of the thirty-sixth Congress of the United States who gave aid and comfort to the late rebellion.

Third. Those who have treated officers or soldiers or sailors of the army or navy of the United States captured during the late war otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war.