14 AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U. S. [Arts. 14-15]

which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.

SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number
of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right
to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-
President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Execu-
tive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being
twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis
of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citi-
zens twenty-one years of age in such State.

SECTION 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress,
or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or mili-
tary, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously
taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United
States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judi-
cial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given
aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-
thirds of each House, remove such disability.

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—

its consent to it); Illinois ratified it January 15, 1867; West Virginia, January 16, 1867;
Kansas, January 18, 1867; Maine, January 19, 1867; Nevada, January 22, 1867; Missouri,
January 26, 1867; Indiana, January 20, 1867; Minnesota., February 1, 1867; Rhode
Island, February 7, 1867; Wisconsin, February 13, 1867; Pennsylvania, February 13,
1867; Michigan, February 15, 1867; Massachusetts, March 20, 1867; Nebraska, June 15,
1867; Iowa, April 3, 1868; Arkansas, April 6, 1868; Florida, June 9, 1868; Louisiana,
July 9. 1868, and Alabama, July 13, 1868. Georgia again ratified the amendment Febru-
ary 2, 1870. Texas rejected it November 1, 1866, and ratified it February 18, 1870. Vir-
ginia rejected it January 19, 1867, and ratified it October 8, 1869. The amendment was
rejected by Kentucky, January 10, 1867; by Delaware, February 8, 1867; by Maryland,
March 23, 1867, and was not afterwards ratified by either State.

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-