g
three years of military service, helped the Union arms to victory at
Appomattox. Standing in the shadow of the awful calamity and deep distress
of the civil war, and grateful to God for peace and victory over the
rebellion, the American people, who upheld the Union, rose to the sublime
heights of doing justice to the former slaves, who had grown and
multiplied with the country from the early settlement at Jamestown. It
looked like an effort to pay them back for their years of faithfulness and
unrequited toil, by not only making them free but placing them on equal
footing with themselves in the fundamental law. Certainly, they intended
at least, that they should have as many rights under the Constitution as
are given to white naturalized citizens who come to this country from all
the nations of Europe.

The 13th amendment provides that neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States or any place subject
to their jurisdiction.

The 14th amendment provides in section one, that all persons born or
naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law 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 law.

The 15th amendment provides that 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.

Chief Justice Waite, in the case of the United States vs. Cruikshank, 92nd
U.S. 542, said:--

"The 14th amendment prohibits a State from denying to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. The equality of the
rights of citizens is a principle of republicanism. Every Republican
government is in duty bound to protect all its citizens in the enjoyment
of this principle if within its power."

The same Chief Justice, in the case of the United States vs. Reese, 92nd
U.S. 214, said:

"The 15th amendment does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone. It
prevents the States or the United States from giving preference in this
particular t