Section Four of
the Fourteenth Amendment dealt with the public debt, especially
as related to the Civil War. The first part of the section
declared that the public debt of the United States, including
pensions made to Union veterans, could not be questioned. The
second part prevented the federal and state governments from
taking on and paying Confederate debt, including claims made by
former slaveowners for the lost property value in slaves due to
the abolition of slavery.
On December 5, 1865, the second day of the 39th
Congress, Democratic Congressman Samuel J. Randall of
Pennsylvania introduced a
resolution affirming that the federal
debt could not be repudiated. It received overwhelming
bipartisan approval in the House, 162-1. The Joint Committee on
Reconstruction then took up the issue and drafted a proposed
constitutional amendment upholding the federal debt and
rejecting Confederate debt. It was reported to the full House
on December 19, 1865, and
passed the same day with
large bipartisan support, 150-11. No action was taken on the
proposed constitutional amendment in the Senate. It was
superseded by the Fourteenth Amendment, which incorporated its
text into Section Four. |