oken a little by some
official life.( 8) I took a deep interest in the political questions
growing out of the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion,
and especially in the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The _first_ of these
abolished slavery in the United States; the _second_ (1) secured
to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, citizenship
therein and in the State wherein they resided; prohibited a State
from making any law that would abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens, and from depriving any person of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law, and from denying to any person
the equal protection of the laws; (2) required Representatives to
be apportioned among the States according to number, excluding
Indians not taxed, but provided that when the right of male citizens
over twenty-one years to vote for electors and Federal and State
executive, judicial or legislative officers, was denied or abridged
by any State, except for participation in rebellion or other crime,
the basis of representation therein should be reduced proportionately;
(3) excluded any person who, having previously taken an oath as a
member of Congress or of a State Legislature, or as an officer of
the United States or of a State, to support the Constitution of
the United States, shall have engaged or aided in rebellion, from
holding any office under the United States or any State, leaving
Congress the right by a two-thirds vote of each House to remove
such disability, and (4) prohibited the validity of the public
debt, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and
bounties, from being questioned, and prevented the United States
or any State from paying any obligation incurred in aid of the
Rebellion, or any claim for the emancipation of any slave, and the
_third_ provided that citizens shall not be denied the right to
vote "By any State on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude."( 9) Those amendments completed the cycle of
fundamental changes of the Constitution, and were necessary results
of the war.

Ohio ratified each of them through her Legislature, but, in January,
1868, rescinded her previous ratification of the Fourteenth
Amendment. I voted and spoke in the Ohio Senate against this
recession.

The Constitution of Ohio gave the elective franchise only to "white"
persons. In 1867 the people of the State