VOTED ‘MOST SIGNIFICANT’: Reconstruction Era’s 14th Amendment transformed America, expert says
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1868, was lately voted America’s Most Significant Document. (Photo/Pexels.com)
By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
May 8, 2026
In the aftermath of the Civil War, because the United States was grappling with the best way to sew itself again collectively, whereas nonetheless guaranteeing the troopers who gave their lives preventing to avoid wasting the Republic had not died in useless, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was crafted.
The modification, almost 440 phrases, was handed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified by the states on July 9, 1868. It established delivery proper citizenship and assured due course of and equal safety. Also, it prohibited anybody who “engaged in insurrection” from holding any civil, army or elected workplace with out the approval of two-thirds of the US House and Senate.
Together, the 13th14th and 15th amendments, ratified between 1865 and 1870, are often known as the Reconstruction Amendments.
Gerard Magliocca, a professor at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, who has studied and written extensively concerning the 14th Amendment, described the three amendments born within the instant years after the battle between the states as a “second Constitution.” They turned the nation from slavery towards equal rights for all, together with those that had beforehand been slaves.
Ratification of the 14th Amendment It was not straightforward, Magliocca stated. The nation had an prolonged debate, with sturdy emotions and harsh phrases on either side.
However, the passage of time has supplied some perspective and proven the significance of the modification. In truth, a nationwide, nine-month competitors highlighting 100 of America’s historic papers chosen from the National Archives, culminated in March with the 14th Amendment being named “America’s Most Significant Document.”
Schoolchildren, teenagers and adults in all 50 states voted within the first-of-its-kind competitors, performed by the National Archives Foundation and More Perfect, an American alliance working to revitalize democracy. In the final 4 weeks of the competition, the paperwork went head-to-head in a March Madness style on-line event.
The championship pitted on 14th Amendment in opposition to – maybe appropriately – the 13th Amendment.
Magliocca was hesitant to single out the 14th Amendment, amongst all of the others, as essentially the most important in American historical past, however he took a while to take a seat down with The Indiana Citizen and share his insights into the operate and aspirations of that doc.
The question-and-answer interview has been edited for readability.
Question: The 14th Amendment was crafted and handed within the aftermath of the Civil War. What attitudes and considerations had been effervescent in society at the moment?
GM: One approach you’ll be able to consider it’s that the 14th Amendment is the peace treaty between the North and the South. So, the North has gained the battle and there was this dialogue on what the phrases must be for bringing the South again into the nation and the way harsh they need to be. That’s actually the dialogue that folks had been having all through the nation for about two years, or perhaps three years, after the top of the battle.
Q: In your ebook about John Bingham, who wrote the provisions within the 14th Amendment that ensures rights and equality for all Americans, you speak about how that modification transformed the Constitution. How did the 14th convey the nation into one other period following the Civil War?
GM: We’re actually doing one thing new. Lots of people would say that the amendments on the time of reconstruction are nearly like a brand new structure. The first structure was way more pro-slavery, way more targeted on states’ rights. And the second structure is anti-slavery, after all, and extra targeted on nationwide energy, and sort of dedicated to a a lot higher extent to equal rights proper on the premise of race.
Q: The modification was ratified on July 9, 1868. How straightforward was ratification?
GM: The Republicans, who had been the supporters of the modification on the time, gained decisively within the elections, and that was taken as a sort of mandate for the ratification of this modification. The Southerners had been, in impact, being dragged kicking and screaming into ratifying it. And that posed an issue later, as a result of, mainly, they did every thing they might to frustrate its implementation. That, in some methods, is a sort of inevitable downside of a civil battle of how do you get the losers to acquiesce to what the winners need?
Q: The 14th Amendment has 5 sections. The first part focuses on citizenship, the scope of which is now being debated within the birthright citizenship case that’s pending earlier than the US Supreme Court. Why can we see citizenship on this post-Civil War modification?
GM: The very first thing they wished to do was to overrule the Dred Scott choice, which had stated earlier than the Civil War that Blacks couldn’t be residents of the United States. So, the primary sentence mainly defines citizenship for the primary time, as a result of the Constitution as initially written didn’t have a definition of citizenship. And, after all, it signifies that Blacks will be residents. They’re born or naturalized, similar to anyone else.
The second purpose is to say citizenship consists of sure sorts of rights. So, then the second sentence of the primary part is mainly saying, listed below are the rights of residents that no state shall deny. And then it says that each one individuals are entitled to due means of legislation and equal safety of the legislation.
Q: You have described the modification’s second part as “unworkable.” What is problematic about that provision?
GM: The second part tried to settle the query of “What should we do about voting by Black men and by women?” The downside on the time was the nation did not actually have a consensus on what to do, however one thing needed to be performed. So, the drafters tried to provide you with what turned out to be sort of an unworkable system, which stated a state that denies voting rights to Black males will endure a penalty by way of fewer representatives in Congress.
That was unworkable for all types of causes. First of all, it was laborious to determine how many individuals had been being denied the proper to vote, or why they had been being denied the proper to vote. And even when folks did determine that out, then they had been probably not positive what they had been speculated to do about that. So, it was by no means enforced.
A few years later, the fifteenth Amendment was ratified, which simply says, you’ll be able to’t discriminate on the premise of race in voting. They did not have sufficient help for that when the 14th Amendment was written, so the second part just isn’t solely outmoded, however largely sort of disappears.
Q: The remaining sections of the modification addressed the problem of reintegrating the South again into the nation. What had been a few of the issues or considerations the third, fourth and fifth sections had been making an attempt to unravel?
GM: The third part addressed what ought to occur to the leaders of the Confederacy. And, after all, the reply, just about, was, we weren’t going to criminally prosecute them, however we had been going to exclude them from workplace till such time as Congress noticed match to allow them to again in.
Some folks had been barred for his or her whole lifetime. For others, Congress did say sooner or later, since you’ve proven that you’ve got performed your penalty, or as a result of we simply assume that sufficient time has passed by and it is all proper now, you are allowed to serve in workplace once more.
The fourth part has two elements. One addressed the priority that the Southern states may refuse to authorize funds on the debt that had been racked up in the course of the Civil War, or the funds of pensions to Union troopers or their widows. So, one provision stated the debt have to be paid. The different provision addressed the priority over the Confederate debt. There had been Confederate bonds in the course of the battle and, if these states tried to pay these bonds off, folks simply thought that may be preposterous and it should not be allowed. So, they swept that. Most vital of all was what would occur if a former slave proprietor went to their state and stated, ‘I deserve some cash for the lack of my slaves,’ as a result of, after all, the emancipation of the slaves didn’t embrace compensation for the house owners. People thought it could simply be morally flawed, for the South to be compensated for his or her possession of different folks. So, the part additionally bars any state from doing that.
The fifth part simply says Congress has energy to implement this because it sees match, kind of.
Q: Many of the courtroom circumstances which have expanded particular person rights, resembling voting rights and identical intercourse marriage, have hinged on the ensures supplied within the 14th Amendment. How did that modification change into so pivotal?
GM: Some of it’s as a result of the language that the drafters selected to make use of was broad. And that was a deliberate choice to not make it extra particular. Second, quite a lot of occasions when individuals are bringing a lawsuit, they’re difficult a legislation from a state, and, after all, the 14th Amendment speaks on to what states cannot do. So, it is the type of “go to place” for a constitutional problem to a state legislation proper now.
The different factor is that, particularly in trendy occasions, folks see the Civil War as a higher achievement in advancing liberty and equality. Therefore, they are going to take a look at that point as a sort of mannequin for the way they’re supposed to consider a recent downside. The different approach you’ll be able to consider it, though folks differ about this, is, in some sense, the modification represents Lincoln’s views. In different phrases, you have a look at Lincoln’s speeches, the Gettysburg Address being one instance, that is the spirit of what the 14th Amendment then tries to jot down up in prose.
Q: You have written that, initially, the courts interpreted the 14th Amendment very narrowly. How did the judiciary go from this slender view to the broader view of as we speak?
GM: All constitutional provisions are interpreted narrowly at the start and broader later. Judges are typically cautious, and they also’re not going to present a really expansive interpretation immediately. Secondly, it’s worthwhile to get some perspective. In the instant aftermath of an occasion, it is laborious to get a sort of larger image view of what is going on on. Ten years later, or 50 years later, or no matter, you have got a special view, and perhaps in some methods, a greater view of what occurred than somebody within the instant aftermath.
Q: How vital is the 14th Amendment to American democracy? How a lot did it form the nation we have now as we speak?
GM: The 14th Amendment is prime, as a result of, initially, it is defining citizenship. So citizenship is type of the bedrock of our nation. The second factor is the assure of rights and equality. You know, there isn’t any equality assure within the Constitution as initially written. There could not have been, as a result of there was slavery.
The third aspect addresses our rights. We disagree considerably on what the rights are or precisely what they imply, however everybody agrees that we have now rights.
Q: As a mechanism for making an attempt to get us to a extra excellent union, what do you see as the way forward for the 14th Amendment?
GM: Well, individuals are going to proceed to enchantment to it for no matter their objectives could be. Now, after all, what that could possibly be relies on type of the place public opinion is to some extent, and the way that will get channeled into lawsuits. So, in different phrases, it would not must be in a liberal path or a conservative path. I imply, it could possibly be both, as a result of the language is broad sufficient to embody all of that. And folks’s understanding of liberty and equality additionally modifications over time. So, it is a bit of laborious to know.
Dwight Adams, an editor and author primarily based in Indianapolis, edited this text. He is a former content material editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and labored as a planner for different newspapers, together with the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform devoted to growing the variety of knowledgeable and engaged Hoosier residents. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions concerning the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org
