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So Congress took action. After all, it was controlled by the Republicans.
So Congress, in 1866, passed our first Civil Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Now, that act formally declared that all persons born in the United States, anywhere in the United States - except Indians - were citizens, granting them equal protection under federal law.
Why not Indians or Native Americans? Because in many cases, the tribes were considered their own nations.
Their own nations.
And you couldn't be a citizen of two nations at the same time, especially within the Americas.
So they passed that. Now, what did it state in relevant part? The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which is crucially relevant to this discussion.
"Be it enacted that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power."
In other words, not a citizen of another country.
"Excluding Indians not taxed are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States."
This, again, was aimed at what?
At the former slaves, their family, their children, their future children, and the black codes in these southern states that were preventing the implementation of equal rights and citizenship.
"And such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right in every state and territory in the United States to make and enforce contracts, to sue, to be parties and give evidence to inherit, to purchase, to lease, to sell, to hold and convey real and personal property and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of every person and property as is enjoyed by White citizens and shall be subject to like punishment, pains and penalties and to none other any law, statute, ordinance, regulation or custom to the contrary notwithstanding."
A complete repudiation of the Dred Scott and a complete repudiation of the Black Codes.
So this act was intended to reverse the Supreme Court's decision and eliminate these Black Codes.
So they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in the overwhelmingly Republican Congress. And what happens?
Well, the bill goes to a Democrat by the name of Andrew Johnson, who'd been vice president but became president on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
He's a Democrat from Tennessee.
So President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
But there were enough Republicans in Congress to override his veto. So it remained the law.
But the Republican Congress was concerned about the ease with which a law could be changed or even eliminated down the road. They saw what Johnson tried to do.
Thus was born the impetus for the 14th Amendment.
Their purpose was to constitutionalize the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
How do we know this? Because they told us this.
John A. Bingham, B-I-N-G-H-A-M. These are great patriots.
He was a House Republican from Ohio.
In the House, he was the main drafter, considered the Madison of the 14th Amendment, of the language in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which includes the Citizenship Clause.
He was a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in the 39th Congress, which formulated the amendment to provide a constitutional basis for civil rights following the Civil War.
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