16 CONSTITUTION or THE UNITED STATES.

SECTION 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, author-
ized 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.

ARTICLE XV. 1

SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude—

SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

ARTICLE XVI. 2

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from
whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States,
and without regard to any census or enumeration.

ARTICLE XVII. 3

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from
each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator

1 The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed
to the legislatures of the several States by the Fortieth Congress on the 27th of Febru-
ary, 1869, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March
30, 1870, to have been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-nine of the thirty-seven
States. The dates of these ratifications (arranged in the order of their reception at the
Department of State) were: From North Carolina, March 5, 1869; West Virginia,
March 3, 1869; Massachusetts, March 9-12, 1869; Wisconsin, March 9, 1869; Maine,
March 12, 1869; Louisiana, March 5, 1869; Michigan, March 8, 1869; South Carolina,
March 16, 1869; Pennsylvania, March 26, 1869; Arkansas, March 30, 1869; Connecticut,
May 19, 1869; Florida, June 15, 1869; Illinois, March 5, 1869; Indiana, May 13-14,
1869; New York, March 17-April 14, 1869 (and the legislature of the same State passed
a resolution. January 5, 1870, to withdraw its consent to it); New Hampshire, July 7,
1869; Nevada, -March 1, 1869; Vermont, October 21, 1869; Virginia, October 8, 1869;
Missouri, January 10, 1870; Mississippi, January 15-17, 1870; Ohio, January 27, 1870;
Iowa, February 3, 1870; Kansas, January 18-19, 1870; Minnesota, February 19, 1870;
Rhode Island, January 18, 1870; Nebraska, February 17, 1870; Texas, February 18,
1870. The State of Georgia also ratified the amendment February 2, 1870.

2 The sixteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed
to the Legislatures of the several States, by the Sixty-first Congress, and was declared
in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated February 25, 1913, to have been rati-
fied by the Legislatures of thirty-six States, viz: Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina,
Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Maryland, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Idaho, Oregon, Wash-
ington, California, Montana, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas, Colo-
rada, North Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Maine, Tennessee, Arkansas, Wisconsin,
New York, South Dakota, Arizona, Minnesota, Louisiana, Delaware and Wyoming.

3 The seventeenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed
to the Legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-second Congress, second session,