"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.
"SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation."
On the passage of the amendment by the United States Senate, Senator
Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, said:
"Sir, your amendments to the Constitution are all void; they are of no effect. They were proposed by a mutilated Congress; they were proposed by a mutilated House of Representatives and Senate."
The election in Virginia took place on July 6, 1869. The vote on the Constitution was, for it, 206,233; against it, 9,189. For the disfranchising clause, 84,404; against it, 124,361. In favor of the test-oath clause, the votes were, 83,114; against it, 124,106. State officers and a Legislature were chosen.
Meantime the civil or provisional Governor had been removed by the military commander, Major-General Stoneman, and the commander of the first district put in the vacancy. At the same time the President-Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals was a staff-officer of the General commanding, and assigned to that duty; and another one of the judges of that court was an officer of the Federal army, receiving his appointment from the same source.
On October 5th the Legislature assembled, the State officers-elect having already entered upon their duties. The fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted, and Senators elected to Congress. On January 26, 1870, a bill for the admission of the State into the Union, "without further condition," was passed. Her subjugation was now completed. The military commanders were withdrawn, and she was left in the hands of "carpet-baggers."
[Footnote 130: Declaration of Independence.]
CHAPTER LVII.
Final Subjugation of the Confederate States (continued).—Slaves declared free by Military Commanders in North Carolina.—Provisional Governor.—Convention.—Military Commander.—Governor-elect turned out.—His Protest.—Members of Congress admitted.—Proceedings in South Carolina.—Arrest of Judge Aldrich.—Military Reversal of Sentence of the Court.—Post Commanders.—Jurors.—Proceedings in Georgia.—President's Plan.—Plan of Congress enforced.—Other Events.—Proceedings in Florida.—Rival Conventions.—Plan of Congress enforced.—Proceedings in Alabama.—Suspension of Bishop Wilmer by the Military Commander.—Military Authority.—Action of Congress.—Proceedings in Mississippi.—Constitutionality of the Act of Congress before the Supreme Court.—Remarks of Chief-Justice Chase.—Military Arrests.—Removals.—The Chief-Justice of the State resigns.—The So-called Constitution rejected.—Ames appointed Governor.—Proceedings in Louisiana.—Plan of Congress enforced.—Other Measures.—Arkansas.—Texas.—Opinion of the United States Attorney-General on Military Commanders.—Consequences that followed the Measures of Congress.—Increase in State Debts.— Increase in Frauds and Crimes.—Examples.—Investigating Committees of Congress.—The Unalienable Rights of Man.—The Sovereignty of the People and the Supremacy of Law gone.