History Conversations | The Second Founding of the American Republic: Creating the Fourteenth Amendment

This program, presented jointly by Montgomery History and the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, will tell the story of crafting the Fourteenth Amendment in the 39th Congress in 1865 – 1866 and the men who engineered its approval. These include Thaddeus Stevens, William Pitt Fessenden, Jacob Howard, Charles Sumner, Reverdy Johnson, and Robert Dale Owen. The speaker will discuss the objectives and tactics of the principal actors to secure two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, and implications of the amendment for current controversies. Why is this transformative amendment relevant today? The amendment • guaranteed birthright citizenship and redistributed power in the federal system. • prohibited states from infringing the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens or denying any person due process of the law or equal protection of the laws. • required apportionment of the House of Representative on the basis of population and reduced a state’s representation if it excluded any class of males over 21 from voting. • prohibited insurrectionists from holding federal or state office unless 2/3 of both houses of Congress granted amnesty; • declared the debt of the United States should not be questioned; and • gave Congress power to enforce the Amendment.