persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right
to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and
Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the
executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the
legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States,
or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other
crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State_.
The second sentence of this section was framed in the belief that the
States, rather than lose a portion of their representatives in Congress,
would grant the right of suffrage to negroes already declared to be
citizens. But proportional reduction of representatives was never put
into practical operation, for before the next apportionment of
representatives, Amendment XV became a part of the Constitution, and
negro suffrage was put on the same basis as white. However, the
enforcement of Section 2 of Amendment XIV has been strongly urged in our
own time. This is because it is estimated that many thousands have been
disfranchised through the restrictions on the right of suffrage found in
several of our State constitutions. Some require an educational test and
others a property qualification for voting.
The "Indians not taxed" doubtless refers to those Indians who still
maintain their tribal relations or who live on reservations in the
several States. Their member, according to the census of 1910, was
129,518.
Early Apportionment.--The number of representatives to which each
of the States was originally entitled is given in Section 2, Clause 3,
of the article we are now considering as follows:--
_Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several
States which may be included within this Union, according to their
respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole
number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of
years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other
persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after
the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shal
|