14th Amendment Essay

1449 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of slavery and its impact on US society

The Fourteenth Amendment: Is it too late now to say sorry? The Reconstruction Era, 1865 to 1877, was a period marked by a number of overridden President Johnson vetoes and a push for establishing basic rights and citizenship for African Americans. Along with this period of change came three new Amendments—the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth—which secured the rights of recently emancipated slaves. The Fourteenth Amendment was directed at the states to recognize and protect life, liberty and property and the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. It transferred the federal power to the states, but also gave the federal government the right to oversee the states and enforce the Amendment. The most significant part, section one, …show more content…

Foremost, the framers wrote the amendment in a general sense so they would not leave out whatever they could not think of. They wanted future readers and the government to be able to interpret it in this same way and expected all the states to willingly and readily enforce it. The amendment was ultimately a reaction to black codes, legal repression and violence, particularly in the South. However, the Republicans, who made up most of the 39th Congress, also wanted to keep their party strong by agreeing on a majority opinion while distancing themselves from President Johnson. As Eric Foner, an expert historian in Reconstruction, says: The aims of the 14th Amendment can only be understood within the political and ideological context of 1866: the break with the President, the need to find a measure upon which all Republicans could unite, and the growing consensus within the party around the need for strong federal action to protect the freedmen’s rights, short of the …show more content…

WHAT AM I ARGUING COMPLICATE THIS SENTENCE. A quote from an Ohio newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, reads: “Slavery is dead, the negro is not. There is the misfortune. For the sake of all the parties, would that he were.” There were people in the North, mostly Democrats, who viewed the amendment and the incorporation of rights of blacks in society as a detrimental burden. ADD SOME STUFF HERE. When discussing African Americans and their rights, President Johnson

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of The 14th Amendment

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Fourteenth Amendment did surely constitute the biggest development of government force following the approval of the Constitution. The change was not considered in an emptiness the explanation behind this development of force, and for the correction overall, is found in the more extensive connection of the mid nineteenth-century South and the unescapable mistreatment of the free dark population residence there In considering the way of Southern race relations, both previously, then after the fact the Civil War, the designers of the Fourteenth Amendment came to trust that total a radical development of the forces of the central government over the states would empower them. Congress has power to enforce this article “Equal

    Read More

  • 18th Amendment Essay

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sixteenth Amendment- Authorization of an Income Tax – Progressives thought this would slow down the rising wealth of the richest Americans by using a sliding or progressive scale where the wealthier would pay more into the system. In 1907, Roosevelt supported the tax but it took two years until his Successor, Taft endorsed the constitutional amendment for the tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified by the states in 1913. The origin of the income tax came William J Bryan in 1894 to help redistribute wealth and then from Roosevelt and his dedication to reform of corporations. I agree with an income tax to pay for all of our government systems and departments, but I believe there was a misfire with “redistributing wealth.” The redistribution is seen in welfare systems whereby individuals receive money to live. This is meant to be a temporary assistance, but sadly, most that are in the system are stuck due to lack of assistance in learning how to escape poverty. There are a lot of government funded programs, but there is no general help system to help lift people up and stay up, so there continues a cycle of

    Read More

  • 13th Amendment Essay

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are the amendments adopted to the United States Constitution after the Civil War. In succession, these amendments were adopted to the Constitution.

    Read More

  • Slavery Dbq Essay

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388). Such restrictions included: “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish...No public meetings or congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after sunset…” (Louisiana Black Codes 1865). A solution to this was the 14th Amendment. It meant now all people born in America were citizens and it “Prohibited states from revoking one’s life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This meant all states had to...

    Read More

  • Essay About The 19th Amendment

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    The nineteenth amendment has changed the way women were treated and looked upon.There are many ways the nineteenth Amendment has changed in a bad was, but most of them have made a positive impact. Some people went along with the 19th amendment but some people didn’t think it was a good idea. Some people don’t know what or how the 19th amendment changed positively for women. But this paper is gonna show you all the ways it has positively changed the way people view and act towards women.

    Read More

  • Was The Reconstruction A Success Or A Failure

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... This new amendment prohibited the states from denying the right to vote because of race. Reconstruction was a hard time were a lot of bad decisions took place but some good ones were put in effect like the three amendments, the Civil Rights bill and the Tenure of Office. It is a fact that I took a lot of steps for the country to stabilize the situation in the South, due to all the corruption that was going on during the period. Also, thanks to the violence that spread around the south, prevented Reconstruction from leaving the country in better conditions.

    Read More

  • 2nd Amendment Essay

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    The United State of America, established by the Founding Father who lead the American Revolution, accomplished many hardship in order to construct what America is today. As history established America’s future, the suffering the United State encountered through history illustrate America’s ability to identify mistakes and make changes to prevent the predictable. The 2nd Amendment was written by the Founding Father who had their rights to bear arms revoked when they believe rising up to their government was appropriate. The Twentieth Century, American’s are divided on the 2nd Amendment rights, “The right to bear arms.” To understand why the Founding Father written this Amendment, investigating the histories and current measures may help the American people gain a better understanding of gun’s rights in today’s America.

    Read More

  • Seventh Amendment Essay

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    The right to have trial by jury is an easy and simple right letting someone to be able to choose to have their fate be decide by a group of people with having different opinions from different minds letting them have a better chance of finding out the truth, because people have different perspectives in what they see. Which is also a very important right to the freedom we have and to our country. In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Which defines as if someone gets charged over twenty dollars, then they’re able to ask for a jury to hear their side of the case before they lose their money and once the jury makes their decision they can not change it. This Amendment is important to our freedom because into the decision of the Farmers while they were writing on the Bill of Rights they thought it would only be fair to have an equal court system.

    Read More

  • Fourth Amendment Essay

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Constitution of the United States of America protects people’s rights because it limits the power of government against its people. Those rights guaranteed in the Constitution are better known as the Bill of Rights. Within these rights, the Fourth Amendment protects “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizures […]” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008). According to the Fourth Amendment, a search warrant must be issued before a search and seizure takes place. However, consent for lawful search is one of the most common exceptions to the search warrant requirement.

    Read More

  • Tenth Amendment Essay

    1467 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tenth Amendment Our bill of rights all began when James Madison, the primary author of the constitution, proposed 20 amendments to the bill of rights and not the ten we know of today. Madison sent these twenty proposed rights through the House and the Senate and was left with twelve bills of rights. Madison himself took some of it out. These amendments were then sent to the states to be ratified. Virginia was the tenth state out of the fourteenth states to approve 10 out of 12 amendments.

    Read More

  • Black Status: Post Civil War America

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a result of the failure of Johnson's Reconstruction, Congress proposed its own plan. The 14th amendment was one of the many things implemented under this plan. Among other things, this amendment forbade ex-Confederate leaders from holding political office, and gave freedmen their citizenship. The Southern rejection of this amendment, largely as a result of the actions of their former Confederate leaders then in state office, paved the way for the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This dismantled all Southern governments and established military control over the South.

    Read More

  • KKK

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...t also compromises with the South in certain aspects. Although this plan seemed to be a good one, Andrew Johnson lost power before he can enforce them. So the last plan was Congresses, this plan ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It’s goal was to protect the civil rights of all Americans, no matter what race you are. It also created the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the South into five military districts. It also passed the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbid any State from denying suffrage due to race. This amendment was aimed directly to eradicate the Black Codes in the South. All these revisions angered the South, but no one was more angry than the Klan.

    Read More

  • Differences Between Presidential And Congressional Reconstruction

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aside from the presidential reconstruction, the Congressional Reconstruction was also taking place. The Congressman disagreed with both Lincoln and Johnson’s plans for Reconstruction. Their main two goals was to integrate African Americans into society by granting them citizenship and the right to vote, and the second goal was to destroy the political powers that former slaveholders had in the South. They first implemented these ideas by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave African Americans citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws. Although the black codes came about and Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, Congress had the power to override his veto. This shows that even though the President is the leader of the nation, the Constitution guarantees that Congress has some measure of influence over the President and may chose to block his procedures, Check and Balances. With success, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the country. All citizens were entitled to equal protection under law and be given their rights. The Congress agreed that if the Confederate states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment they could come back into the Union. Having not followed the Congress request, Congressed passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This forced the Confederate states to undergo Reconstruction as the Congress wanted. To ensure that Southerners could not change their state constitution in the future, they passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the last congressional Reconstruction law, another Civil Rights

    Read More

  • More Perfect Union Goals

    318 Words  | 1 Pages

    The stated goals of the Constitution, “to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”all has an important meaning to it. First, the goal, “to form a more perfect union” means that states should not go astray and become an independent country, but to stay as a united nation. This goal refers to the Civil War because some southern states didn’t agree on the government so they tried to become a separate country.Next, the goal “establish justice” was made so that all of the laws was made exactly the same for every American so that all of our laws are not unjust and it doesn’t go towards one

    Read More

  • Failure Of Reconstruction Essay

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the Civil War and during the Radical Reconstruction era, the federal government and local governments passed laws and legislation to assist newly freed blacks, but the success of this legislation varied in bringing effective change to their fiscal status and basic rights. After the Civil War, the United States was trying to put itself back together with the addition of the newly freed slaves. In order to create this new America, laws and social expectations were attempted to make blacks and whites equal, not only in front of the law, but also in social norms. The biggest and most far reaching of these legislations was the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, which declared clear guidelines for legal treatment and rights for African Americans. State laws were also added that varied by state. These state laws had a larger impact on the social aspects of black integration. The biggest failure of reconstruction was the institutionalized punitive slavery and mistreatment of blacks in the former confederate states.

    Read More

More about 14th Amendment Essay

Open Document