CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 55

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 citizens
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 military, 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 judicial 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, authorized 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.

Crandall v. The State of Nevada, 6 Wall. 35. Paul v. Virginia, 8 Wall.
168 Ward v Maryland, 12 Wall. 418. Slaughterhouse Cases, 16 Wall. 36.
Biadwell v The State, 16 Wall. 130. Bartemeyer v. Iowa, 18 Wall. 129.
Minoi v Happersett, 21 Wall 162. Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U S. 90. Ken-
nard v Louisiana, ex rel. Morgan, 92 U. S. 480. United States v. Cruik-
shank, 92 U. S. 542. Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113.

ARTICLE XV.*

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—

*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 February, 1869, and was declared, in a proclamation of the