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Fifteenth Amendment is ratified: it becomes the rule of the land...
Fifteenth Amendment is ratified: it becomes the rule of the land...
Item # 597620
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March 31, 1870
THE EVANSVILLE JOURNAL, Indiana, March 31, 1870
* Fifteenth 15th Amendment ratified
* Right to vote - race - color
* Ulysses S. Grant
The top of the third column has: "OFFICIAL!" "Proclamation By The President!" "Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment!!" "Colored Men Legal Voters" which is followed by the text of the Proclamation by the President, beginning: "It is unusual to notify the two Houses of Congress by message of the promulgation by proclamation of the Secretary of State of the ratification of a Constitutional amendment. In View, however, of the vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution...I deem a departure from the usual custom justifiable..." and more, and concluding with: "...the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment...completes the greatest civil change, and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life....I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their...power ...to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the Government a blessing and not a danger...", signed in type: U.S. Grant.
Following the President's message is the document issued by the Secretary of State that recognizes and includes the text of original resolution proposed by Congress in 1868, section 1 of Article 15 which reads: "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." The document continues by announcing that the necessary number of states had ratified the amendment, reading, in part: "...be it known that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State...do herby certify that the amendment aforesaid has become valid...as a part of the Constitution of the United States...", signed in type: Hamilton Fish. See the hyperlink for more on the significance of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Four pages, archival strengthening around the margins, some minor margin tears & chipping with archival mends being mostly inside, a very small hole to the front leaf affects 1 word in the Proclamation (see). Archivally rejoined at the spine.
Category: Post-Civil War
No Longer Available
