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Section One: Civil Rights // Section Two: Apportionment
Section Three: Punitive Measures // Section Four: Confederate Debt

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  It was superseded by the Fourteenth Amendment, which incorporated its text into Section Four.


Harper's Weekly References

1)  December 23, 1865, p. 803, c. 4
“Domestic Intelligence” column

2)  January 6, 1866, p. 3, c. 4
“Domestic Intelligence” column


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Section One: Civil Rights // Section Two: Apportionment
Section Three: Punitive Measures // Section Four: Confederate Debt
 
 

     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 

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