ARTICLE XIV.
MISCELLANEOUS RECONSTRUCTION PROVISIONS.
SECTION I.—"CITIZEN" DEFINED. PRIVILEGES GUARANTEED.
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.[1] No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall 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.[2]
[1] This provision defines citizenship. It was worded with the special view of including the negroes. It embodies the principle of the Civil Rights Bill, and is intended to guarantee to the negroes the protection implied in citizenship.
[2] Some of the amendments impose limitations only on the general government. Lest the states in which slavery had recently been abolished should endeavor to oppress the ex-slaves this provision was made as a limitation upon the states.
But this provision is general in it nature, and by means of it the United States can protect individuals against oppression on the part of the states. Pomeroy [Footnote: Constitutional Law, p. 151.] regards this as the most important amendment except the thirteenth.