of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same,
or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may,
by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

* * * * *

Section 5. "The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT, MARCH 30, 1870.

Section 1. "The right of citizens of the United to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Section 2. "The Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation."

The women understood the principles involved in these amendments, and
accepted the logical conclusions. Under the first they applied to
Congress for protection against the tyranny of the States in depriving
them of the right of suffrage, but they were remanded to the States,
and were told that Congress had no jurisdiction in the matter. Under
the second, when women claimed the rights of citizens as tax-payers
who helped to support the Government, they were told that neither the
fathers nor their sons ever thought of women in framing their
Constitutions, and that some special legislation was needed before
their rights of citizenship could be recognized or accorded.

During the prolonged debates on these amendments, those who watched
the progress of political sentiment and understood the drift of
events, struck the key-note of reconstruction in "universal suffrage
and universal amnesty," but they were speedily silenced or condemned.
Abraham Lincoln saw that this was the true policy, and counseled it
in private. But he was influenced by those who misjudged the signs of
the times, and for the success of his party and his own re-election,
he yielded to weak counselors. Horace Greeley, with the suffering and
humiliation of the South, as well as the guilt and selfishness of the
North before him, declared "universal suffrage and universal amnesty"
to be the true basis of reconstruction, but a few cracks of the party
whip brought him into line. Henry Ward Beecher foreshadowed the same
policy in an able letter, which called down upon him the nation's
scorn and denunciation, for which he was stabbed by the friends of his
own h