The Fourteenth Amendment and National Context

Alexandria Freedmen existed within the national context of the Republican Party as Republicans advocated for their rights through the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment created the initial framework for the Fourteenth Amendment, despite its moderate language. The Thirteenth Amendment allowed the Fourteenth to build upon its ideas: to secure Freedmen’s Suffrage with the Fifteenth Amendment. Radicals including Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner worked against President Andrew Johnson to accomplish their goals within Congress to create the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Stevens controlled the House of Representatives to pass a resolution to outline the creation of the Committee to appeal to all Republicans. He also lobbied for Republican support to create the Committee, despite Johnson’s opposition. On December 1, 1865, Stevens organized a caucus of thirty Radical Republicans to discuss how to proceed with Reconstruction if Johnson did not support them. Stevens disguised his resolution to create the Joint Committee as a moderate bill that passed quickly through the House and forced all Republicans to act against Johnson. Stevens then suspended House rules to end the debate and ensure that the Resolution passed. Sumner had to wait to pass the Resolution until December 11, 1865, to maintain support. The Senate passed the bill that did not require Johnson’s approval, as they changed it to a concurrent Resolution that allowed them to operate independently of the House. Radical Republicans did not have to wait for the House to nominate members or give their judicial power and autonomy to the Committee. The Committee’s origins signaled the break between Congress and Johnson on Reconstruction and its obstacles.

The Fourteenth Amendment allowed Radical Republicans to solidify the Republican Party when Freedmen demanded equal rights and influenced Radical rhetoric. The amendment protected Freedman’s rights after Radicals utilized moderates to pass the amendment. Stevens proposed a resolution to the Joint Committee on Reconstruction on January 9, 1866, to alter representation according to the number of legal voters in every state. Stevens argued that the resolution punished states that restricted Freedman’s suffrage. Radicals altered sections of the proposed amendment to obtain additional support. The political context of Reconstruction enabled Radicals to create the Amendment in the Joint Committee and to convince moderates to pass the Amendment. Congress confronted the slave power, Southern Slave owners, and their influence after 1789. Republicans considered how to end slavery and destroy its political institutions to protect Freedmen. Freedmen advocated their ability to be independent from white northerners or Southern slave owners.

The Joint Committee on Reconstruction, led by moderates, enabled the Radicals to organize their ideas on the future Fourteenth Amendment. Radical Republicans created the Committee on December 4, 1865, to obtain their goals for Reconstruction. Thaddeus Stevens created the Joint Committee that consisted of nine House members, including himself and six Senate members. The resolution passed that same day with one hundred and thirty-three votes to thirty-six votes. Stevens became the minority within the Committee along with other radicals on the Committee. The committee created the Fourteenth Amendment despite being controlled by moderate Republicans. The committee enabled Radicals to fix the problems that emerged after the Civil War, such as the voting population increase to maintain a majority. The Committee created the Radical’s solution to solve Black Suffrage by allowing them to draft the amendment without Democrat support to ensure equal rights. The House began to debate the Fourteenth Amendment on May 5, 1866. Radicals such as Stevens and Representative John Bingham debated each section of the amendment to guarantee that the amendment protected Freedmen.

Congressmen Robert Dale Owen used the Joint Committee on Reconstruction to create the first draft of the amendment. He proposed women’s suffrage into the Fourteenth Amendment to protect Freedmen and women as women’s suffrage emerged out of the Civil War and coincided with Freedmen. The Committee rejected his proposal to focus on Freedmen’s Suffrage. Republicans utilized Owen’s draft but excluded women’s suffrage to obtain moderate support, as they went against time to pass the amendment and have it ratified before 1868.