Delayed implementation of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and nineteenth amendments

¶ … 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments of the United States Constitution took quite a long time to be fully realized for a number of reasons. The principle one, of course, is that the U.S. was designed to operate as a patriarchal, Anglo-Saxon-based society to benefit its principle citizens, white males. A cursory review of the recent court decision in which a Hispanic white male shot and killed an unarmed African-American teenager in Florida (and was acquitted earlier this month) indicates that this perception and basic function of U.S. society has not substantially changed. The 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments were created to extend the rights enjoyed by Anglo-Saxon males to others of historic minority groups such as African-Americans and women. As such, there was a great deal of resistance enacted upon the majority of the country that did not want to see the shift of the focus of citizenship go from white males to others.

Both the 14th and the 15th Amendments were created and ratified during the reconstruction period that followed the Civil War. Each of these pieces of legislation was implemented to grant rights to former slaves that would assist in making their level of citizenship equal to that of White males. Therefore, the principle forms of resistance to these measures came from the recently defeated Southern section of the country. Additionally, it is noteworthy to mention that there were several Northerners who, although they were eager to see the end of slavery largely for economic reasons as the country transitioned from an agricultural-based economy to an industrial one, never saw Africans or African-Americans as equals and did not want to them to have rights that even implied they were as such.

It is important to realize that one of the chief resistors to these two Amendments of the constitution was U.S. president Andrew Johnson, who was only in office because his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln, was murdered in 1865, purportedly by John Wilkes Booth. Johnson's resistance was partly based on the different visions of reconstruction that various parties attempted to enact. There were radical Republicans, for instance, which included the likes of Thaddeus Stevens (Current 259), who wanted to issue African-American males full citizenship rights immediately following the Civil War. There were moderate Republicans who were willing to offer concessions in pursuit of fulfilling the same objectives that the radicals wanted. Lastly, there were moderate republicans, who outwardly voiced sympathy for ex-slaves, yet were unwilling to commit to action any sort of measures that would substantially help their lot. And finally there were Democrats, many of whom had a foundation in the South and who included Johnson among their number, who did not want any reconstruction for ex-slaves.

That said, the main reason why the 14th and 15th Amendments took so long to pass was because the president was against both them and any other significant piece of legislation that would increase the rights of Africans and African-Americans. It is not coincidental that Johnson attempted to (and in fact did) veto the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Johnson), which granted citizenship to ex-slaves and enabled them to own property and procure a fair trial in legal matters. The 14th Amendment, which was submitted that same year and passed a full two years later, was based on the foundation of the aforementioned legislation and extended the rights of citizenship it issued. Both Johnson and the southern portion of the country were largely against this amendment, contributing to its delay in passing. This delay in turn only further delayed the passing of the 15th amendment, which enabled African-Americans the right to vote, largely because of opposition in the South. It was formally proposed in 1869 and passed in 1870.