Volume 14 — EQUAL RIGHTS A CONDITION OF RECONSTRUCTION.

Amendment in the Senate to a Reconstruction Bill, May 29, 1866.

April 30th, Mr. Fessenden, from the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, reported a bill “to provide for restoring to the States lately in insurrection their full political rights.” There was no requirement of Equal Rights as a condition of Reconstruction.

May 29th, Mr. Sumner introduced the following amendment as a substitute for the first section of the bill:—

That, when any State lately in rebellion shall have ratified the foregoing Amendment, and shall have modified its constitution and laws in conformity therewith, and shall have further provided that there shall be no denial of the elective franchise to citizens of the United States because of race or color, and that all persons shall be equal before the law, the 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: Provided, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to require the disfranchisement of any loyal person who is now allowed to vote.

The bill was never called up after the printing of this amendment.