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Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 10:33 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA FOR 30+ YRS

First Published & Printed in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA FOR OVER 30 YEARS!

An Insane Interpretation of an Invalid Amendment

Birth Right Citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment

Following the great tragedy of the “Civil War” and the assassination of President Lincoln in April of 1865, national leadership was largely in the hands of a Congress dominated by the “Radical Republicans.”  This powerful faction of the Republican majority undermined the new President, Andrew Johnson, at every opportunity, and had little regard for the Supreme Court. They considered the Constitution to be an inconvenience and the Supreme Court to be an annoyance to the will of the people accomplished by Congress. States Rights, having been defeated by the coercion of bayonets, was no longer an effective check on federal power. 

President Johnson planned to follow Lincoln’s relatively benign plan for establishing loyal civil governments in the South and restoring them to the national family. Pursuant to this on May 29, 1865, he declared an amnesty for most Confederate veterans. By the middle of July, many Southern state governments under the control of Union loyalists were functioning. But the Radical Republicans were bent on exacting a humiliating vengeance on the South and forcibly remaking the South into an unassailable bastion of Radical Republican political support. That support would be used to guarantee the permanent political dominance of the Radical Republican faction over the nation and thereby guarantee the ongoing success of their economic and political agendas.

The Radical Republican hard core in Congress numbered only about thirty of some 230 Northern Senators and Representatives, but their ruthless methods and influence were very powerful, and they had strong and widespread support in the Northern press. Five men exercised dominant leadership: Thaddeus Stevens, Representative from Pennsylvania; Benjamin Butler, Representative from Massachusetts; Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts; Benjamin Wade, Senator from Ohio; and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.

In December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. Included in the three-quarters of the states necessary for ratification were seven Southern states whose governments had been appointed and reconstituted by President Johnson. This, however, did not guarantee many civil rights for the former slaves, and as the Southern legislatures began to consist more of elected Democrats, they trended back to more traditional Southern thinking and far away from Radical Republican thinking. The Radical Republicans believed more amendments were needed to insure civil rights, and this could be used to advance their agenda for the South and the nation. Thus the 14th Amendment, which was really a combination of several amendments, was born in concept.  Passing the 14th Amendment became a high priority for the Radical Republicans. In passing the 14th Amendment, they would ruthlessly violate the Constitution, engage in blatantly dishonest and despotic legislative manipulation, and impose a mean-spirited tyranny on the South that would poison race relations and regional trust for generations. Several aspects of the 14th Amendment would essentially turn the Constitution on its head and open the door for widespread Judicial and Congressional abuse and tyranny. The shameful coercion, blatant dishonesty, and numerous legislative and constitutional irregularities involved in passing the 14th Amendment place its moral and Constitutional legitimacy in extreme doubt.

The  Fourteenth Amendment consists of five sections. Some of these have worthy and beneficial parts as well as unwise and vengeful parts. This article will concentrate mainly on two issues:  first, the widespread misinterpretation of citizenship found in Section 1 and its harmful consequences and second, the corrupt and unconstitutional malfeasance involved in passing the Amendment. Section 1 defines who is a citizen and overturns the Dred Scott v. Sanford Supreme Court decision that denied citizenship based on race. It also prevented states from abridging the rights of citizens and denying any person due process and equal protection of the laws. The problem of Section 1 most focused on here is s misinterpretation of who is a citizen.

Section 1 states:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Certainly, the writers of the 14th Amendment did not intend to give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. To be a citizen of the United States, a person born here must be born of a parent subject to the jurisdiction of the United States by birth or naturalization.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), 300,000 birth-right children per year born of illegal immigrants cost U.S. taxpayers $2.4 billion per year. In addition, they cost another $6.7 billion in annual Medicaid expenses. Moreover, there are now about six million in the United States receiving government benefits. According to the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform the fiscal burden of federal, state, and local governments will be $200 billion per year in 2025. Taxes paid by illegal immigrants in the U.S. fall far short of their annual costs. They are a net burden on taxpayers and represent a subsidy for employers of illegal immigrants. Moreover, excessive cheap labor from legal and illegal immigrants suppresses U.S. worker wages proportionately, according to Harvard economist George Borjas and academic studies reviewed by CIS and other economic study institutes. Birth-right citizenship also incentivizes illegal immigration.

President Trump has proposed to eliminate this debilitating insult to the concept of American citizenship and outrageous burden on American taxpayers and workers. However, Trump’s proposal is likely to receive strong opposition by cheap-labor advocates and political factions hoping to gain power by exploiting illegal immigration.

History of Passing the Fourteenth Amendment

 One reason for Section 1 was to prevent Southern states from implementing “Black Codes” limiting the rights of former slaves.  Some Mississippi legislation in particular was raising concern that the emancipation of slaves by the 13th Amendment was being circumvented.

 At this very time, however, many Northern states had Black Codes more severe than any emerging in the South.  Indiana law codes would not allow blacks and mulattos to come into the state.  Illinois and Oregon were almost as restrictive of black immigration.  Numerous other Northern states including Kansas, Michigan, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin had rejected Negro suffrage and with it other rights and privileges of full citizenship.

The 39th Congress convened in December of 1865 just as the states, including seven Southern states, were finalizing ratification of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. The Radical Republicans knew that they could not depend on elected Southern Congressmen to achieve the two-thirds super majorities in the U. S. Senate and House to pass the 14th amendment.  Consequently, they mustered a majority in both Houses of Congress and voted not to seat the 22 Senators and 58 representatives from eleven formerly Confederate, Southern states. This was accomplished in part by “waving the bloody shirt” of Union losses during the war, impugning the patriotism of those willing to welcome the Southern states back into the Union fold.

However, in the U. S. Senate they could count only 33 of 50 votes, just one short, of that necessary for the two-thirds majority to pass a Constitutional Amendment.  To overcome this, they devised a plan to retroactively unseat John P. Stockton of New Jersey, an outspoken opponent of the 14th Amendment.  It would have required a two-thirds vote to expel Senator Stockton for cause, but they could not muster the votes.  After several days of high-pressure political maneuvering using the usual accusations and unseemly tactics, the Radical Republicans were able on March 27 to retroactively unseat Stockton. The excuse was that the New Jersey Legislature had elected him by a plurality rather than a majority vote, but this was legal in New Jersey as well as several other states. In those days, U.S. Senators were elected by state legislatures rather than popular vote.  Such a retroactive unseating for transparently political objectives was highly irregular, but the 14th Amendment was counted as having passed the Senate on June 13, 1866.  A few days earlier the Amendment had passed the U. S. House with 120 votes, easily more than two-thirds of the 152 that voted, but there were 30 abstentions.

The Amendment was then required to go to President Johnson before going to the States for approval. Johnson, an opponent of the Amendment, was somehow bypassed. The Amendment then went to the 37 States. A constitutional amendment requires ratification by three-quarters of the States, or in this case 28. A rejection or failure to ratify by ten States would have killed the Amendment.

 Tennessee was the first to ratify the amendment, but without a proper quorum of its legislature. Nevertheless, despite this irregularity, Tennessee was counted for ratification. By February 6, 1867, all ten of the remaining Southern states and three border states had rejected the amendment. California refused to consider it and later rejected it. In addition, Ohio in January of 1868, and New Jersey in March of 1868, reacting to Radical Republican despotism and public displeasure thereof, rescinded their earlier ratifications.  Oregon had ratified in September of 1866, but after settling a controversy over a few legislative seats, formerly rescinded on October 15, 1868. The Oregon rescission was too late, however. to effect the eventual outcome.

 The Radical Republicans, however, had a radical plan to reverse Southern rejections of the 14th Amendment. Under their leadership on March 2, 1867, a Reconstruction Act was passed over the veto of President Johnson that revoked the legal status of the ten Southern states that had rejected the 14th Amendment and placed them under a military government administered through five U. S. Army districts. It was now demanded of the ten Southern States under military government that statehood would not be regained unless they ratified the 14th Amendment. 

 Kentucky had not only rejected the amendment by an overwhelming majority but in a May 1867 election sent a solid slate of nine Democrats to Congress. The Radical Republican Congress voted not to seat them. Senator Sumner of Massachusetts threatened to place Kentucky and Maryland under military government. No action was taken on this, however, as Republicans began losing off year elections to Democrats in Northern states.

One of the provisions of the 1867 Reconstruction Act was to enfranchise black males and disenfranchise all Confederate veterans and former Confederate officials. Hence most of the white male population of the South except recent Northern immigrants and proven Union loyalists were without vote or voice in state, local, or federal government.  Enflaming the hatred of former slaves against their former masters was also to be an important Radical Republican tool for political dominance.

Six Southern states complied with the reconstructive coercion, and with the ratifications of South Carolina and Louisiana on July 9, 1868, Congress declared the 14th Amendment ratified, ignoring the rescissions of Ohio, and New Jersey, and the impending rescission of Oregon. By law, however, the official recognition of ratification of a constitutional amendment, rested with the Secretary of State, William H. Seward. Seward proclaimed ratification of the 14th Amendment on July 20, but in his written and oral proclamation he referred to the questionable status of the Ohio and New Jersey ratifications in view of their later rescissions. The next day, assuming the function of the Secretary of State, Congress proclaimed by joint resolution that the 14th Amendment was officially ratified.  On July 28, Seward bowed to the Congressional resolution of the 21st and proclaimed the Amendment ratified.

The 14th Amendment has the positive provisions of more attention paid to individual civil rights and due process in some areas of law, but it has come at the price of considerable loss of freedom and liberties to individuals, businesses, churches, civic, educational, and social organizations, and various spheres of local and state government.  In many senses, The 14th Amendment turned the original Constitution and the first Ten Amendments on their head.  With the 14th Amendment the nation has progressed from a philosophy of decentralized, limited government to a government increasingly characterized by highly centralized power. 

The passage of the Fourteenth Amendment violated Articles I.2, I.3, I.5, IV.4, and, of course, Article V of the  Constitution, which sets the rules for amendments.  

With all the irregularities, frauds, and coercions involved, what fair minded person would recognize the 14th Amendment as constitutional? Yet it is accepted as such, and there are now many precedents in law based on the 14th Amendment.

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”—Proverbs 28:13 ESV

 

Mike ScruggsMike Scruggs is the author of two books: The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You, and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.

He holds a BS degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Stanford University. A former USAF intelligence officer and Air Commando, he is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War, and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. He is a retired First Vice President for a major national financial services firm and former Chairman of the Board of a classical Christian school.

Click the website below to order books. http://www.universalmediainc.org/books.htm.