Friday, January 4, 2013

Did the 14th Amendment help the blacks or punish the south

Amendment #14 punished the south for the entire rebellion,
and the Civil War. The way that Congress made the law made
it seem that it was helping the Freedmen, however, most of the
sections are directed to the south, or made so that the only
people who would violate these sections would be the southern
states.
Paragraph 1 states that Ex-slaves made citizens if they
have been born in the United States. This part doesn't hurt
the south, in fact, it gives them and advantage on the number
of reps in the House. It also helps the freedmen since it is
giving them full rights as U.S. citizens and equality in the U.S.
Paragraph 2 states that when a state denies citizens
(freedmen) the right to vote, its representation shall be
reduced. This is obviously hurting the southern states since
the southerners didn't want the freedmen voting, they would
be losing their representation in the House. However, for this
to be effective, the person must meet the current voting
requirements.
Paragraph 3 states that People who have been in rebellion
are ineligible for federal and state office. In other words, if you
were a military or political leader for the Confederate States of
America, than you can't hold any United States, or individual
state office. This is punishment to those leaders of the
Confederacy who have committed an act of treason. This is a
suitable punishment for these people who are not suited to
hold any office.
Paragraph 4 states that debts incurred in aid of rebellion
are void. This drastically hurts the people who supported the
south. If someone had sold products to the south, expecting
that after the war they would get paid a great sum of money,
than they would get nothing from the United States
government and nothing from those states. This was a sort of
"payback" for those people who aided the south.
These first four paragraphs, which three of them have to
do with hurting the south and only one to help the ex-slaves,
have shown that this amendment was what the south got for
having this Civil War. Without this amendment, the southern
states could have gone unpunished, and possibly start another
rebellion. This amendment obviously goes against the south,
due to all of the paragraphs which have something directly to
do with what the south did. Taking all this into account, the
south, having started this war by attacking a U.S. fort,
deserved it.

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