Delaware and the Civil War Amendments

At the end of and following the Civil War, three amendments to the constitution were proposed and ratified: the 13th (1865), 14th (1868), and 15th (1870). These amendments are commonly known as the Reconstruction amendments and are also called Civil War amendments, Civil Rights amendments, or Equality amendments.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Fourteenth Amendment

Section 1. 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 laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United 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 the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Fifteenth Amendment

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 the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

The Constitution is a living document. Article V describes the process for amending the Constitution:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Delaware ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments on February 12, 1901.

There are many topics to investigate in understanding the proposal and ratification of the Civil War amendments. There are questions concerning the constitutionality of the amendments. ¹ Questions were raised about the validity of the ratification process, especially for the Fourteenth Amendment, including what states should be counted and can a state withdraw its ratification? ² There were those who believed the amendments were drafted by secret groups with hidden motives.³ The nation had endured a devastating war and now had defeated states which had not regained their status in the union and thousands of emancipated people who needed assistance. Also in those years there had been the death of a president, the transition of power to a new president, and an impeachment of that president.

In addition to those widely experienced stresses, Delaware had conditions and situations that set the state apart from the other states. Delaware (just as Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee) was a border state, never seceeding from the union, yet southern in much of its culture. It was a state where people owned slaves, but the small number of slaves was far exceeded by the number of free blacks (in the 1860 census there were 19, 829 free blacks and 1,798 slaves.) But even with such a small number of slaves, the state did not approve the compensated emancipation plan that Lincoln proposed in 1861. ⁴ Politics in Delaware in Reconstruction was dominated by the Democratic party and the Democratic party was dominated by two families, the Bayard family in New Castle County (U.S. Senator James Bayard was followed in that office by his son Thomas) and the Saulsbury brothers downstate (Governor Gove Saulsbury, U.S. Senator Willard Saulsbury, brother Eli, who was also Senator.) ⁵ Racism was powerful motivator for rejecting the amendments and for later situations, such as, preventing blacks from voting. Racism operated on different levels, sometimes subtle and at other times violent. Common themes included inferiority of the black race and a desire for race separation, including colonization/relocation plans for the freedmen. Many opposed the amendments because they feared the centralization of power at the federal level and the diminishment of the powers of the states. ⁶ These factors and others played a part in Delaware's rejection of the amendments.

The following guide presents resources for researching the many topics concerning the amendments nationally and in Delaware.

Reference Books and E-reference Books

Reference books can give an overview of a topic and are useful for finding dates and basic facts. Topics such as "Constitutional Amendments," "African Americans," "Reconstruction," "Black Codes," or "14th Amendment," etc., provide useful background information. Examples: Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century ⁷ and Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. ⁸

Books

General history and law books are useful for context, such as: A History of Delaware, 1609-1888, by John Thomas Scharf (1888). ¹⁰

See the "Books" section of the Library Research Guide Delaware History for recommended general histories and hints for subject and keyword searching in the University of Delaware's two catalogs: DELCAT and WorldCat Local.

Online books -- some older general history books are no longer in copyright and are available full text online. There are two ways to find this out. 1) If you find the book in WorldCat Local, there may be one or more copies of the book. Look for a book with the "e book view now" symbol () or look for a book with the words University of Delaware Library (in green) and see if there is an online copy.  2) Search for a book in Google books.

Demographics

Statistics and social characteristics of a population are a valuable part of research. An example of a statistical source is:

Historical Census Browser (http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/)

Create your own tables from data in the federal decennial censuses, 1790 to 1960. Tables can include percentages. A mapping function is linked to the data.

Map of slaveholders by county, 1860. Historical Census Browser

For more sources for statistics, see the "Statistics" section of the Library Research Guide U.S. Government Information.

Articles in Journals

Search Databases to find articles in journals (magazines and newspapers).

The Digital Bibliography of Delaware ¹² is a UD Library resource that is freely available on the Internet. Sample search: slavery

One article retrieved is "Lincoln’s Compensated Emancipation Plan and its Relation to Delaware," which appeared in Delaware Notes 7:27–78 (1931). WorldCat Local shows that the publication is in print in Morris Library and is available online in the UD Institutional Repository. ¹³

The Library subscribes to online databases and journals from publishers. These resources are restricted to UD faculty, staff, and students. To access the resources from off-campus, UD affiliated researches need to enter their UDelNetID and password.

Examples of useful databases:

• America: History & Life
• Accessible Archives
• LegalTrac

Articles in Law Reviews

The University of Delaware Library subscribes to the database LexisNexis Academic , which has full text of articles in law reviews. Select the U.S. Legal section, then Law Reviews. An example is:

"Essay and Article Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Arizona Law Review: Beyond the Supermajority: Post - Adoption Ratification of the Equality Amendments." By Gabriel Chin and Anjali Abraham (2008). ¹⁴

Government Publications: U.S. and Delaware

Legislative documents for Delaware include: House Journal (debates and proceedings), Senate Journal (debates and proceedings), and the Laws of Delaware (session laws). ¹⁵

Useful federal sources include Statutes at Large (laws passed by Congress; session laws), ¹⁶ the Serial Set (Reports and Document of Congress), and the Congressional Globe (debates and proceedings of Congress).

Use the database U.S. Congressional Serial Set to find Congressional Reports and Documents. Sample search: 14th amendment. This search brings up a suggestion to try the Topic Link: 14th Amendment (U.S. Constitution). One citation retrieved is: Message of the President ..., communicating ... a list of the states whose legislatures have ratified the proposed 14th Article of Amendment... This was published as a Senate Executive Document in the 40th Congress, 2nd session. ¹⁰ The full document is available in the database.

To find debates and proceedings look in the Congressional Globe for the the dates around the time an important event occurred, such as when an amendment was proposed and when it was ratified. Example: the Thirteenth amendment was passed by Congress on Tuesday, January 31, 1865.

The Congressional Globe is online at the Library of Congress site: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation. There is a Browse by date option. Looking at the date January 31 shows discussion in the House of Representatives, p. 523. ¹⁷ When searching for a date, also check prior days.

To find comments by Delaware's congressmen, use the Browse feature to find the person's name. To identify Senators and members of the House, use the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present. ¹⁸

The full text of the online Globe is not searchable; the search feature only covers the headings applied to the pages and terms from a very brief index. The heading for the January 31st page is: "Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 39th Congress, 1st Session, Pages 253 through 254, Constitutional Amendment--Mr. Cullom." This page can be found by searching "13th amendment," "thirteenth amendment," or "Cullom."

For more information on legal research, see the Library Research Guides: U.S. Government Legal Information and Delaware Legal Information.

Court cases are another legal resource. Many cases have referenced these amendments. Books and articles will identify famous cases. The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN) covers court cases related to the constitution. ¹⁹

Also, cases can be searched by topic, such as involuntary servitude, equal rights, and voting practices. Examples:

Supreme Court of the United States: Neal v. Delaware (103 U.S. 370, 1880). A trial court conviction of a black man was overturned because blacks did not serve on juries in Delaware.

Supreme Court of the United States: Plessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537, 1896). The races can be separate as long as they are treated equally.

Circuit Court for the District of Delaware case: United States v. Given (25 F. Cas. 1324, 1878). Archibald Given, Delaware tax collector, found guilty of preventing blacks from voting by not adding their names to the tax lists.

The University of Delaware Library subscribes to the database LexisNexis Academic , which has federal and state case decisions/opinions. See the "U.S. Legal" section.

If you know the legal citation for a case, you can search from the opening page of LexisNexis Academic. Use the option, "Look up a Legal Case" ... "By Citation" and enter the citation in the search box, example: 25 F. Cas. 1324

Transcripts and oral arguments of cases are not widely distributed and are not available in most libraries. The University of Michigan has digitized materials related to the Brown v. Board of Education decision (347 U.S. 483, 1954). Among these is the reargument of the case Gebhart v. Belton in the Supreme Court, December 9, 1953. The argument includes a description of the social and political situation in Delaware. Supreme Court of Delaware (91 A.2d 137, 1952) and U.S. Supreme Court (344 U.S. 891, 1952). ²⁰