Bill in the Senate, December 4, 1865.
A Bill in part execution of the guaranty of a Republican form of Government in the Constitution of the United States.
Whereas it is declared in the Constitution that the United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government; and whereas certain States have allowed their governments to be subverted by rebellion, so that the duty is now cast upon Congress of executing this guaranty: Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all States lately declared to be in rebellion there shall be no oligarchy invested with peculiar privileges and powers, and there shall be no denial of rights, civil or political, on account of race or color; but all persons shall be equal before the law, whether in the court-room or at the ballot-box. And this statute, made in pursuance of the Constitution, shall be the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution or laws of any such State to the contrary notwithstanding.
This bill was read, passed to a second reading, and ordered to be printed.
The same bill, in another form, was introduced by Mr. Sumner, February 2, 1866, and afterwards moved as a substitute for the Constitutional Amendment on Representation.[5]