Speech #560013853

Would not this. taken in connection with the evident meaning of the term elsewhere in so many places and in so many different connections. furnish ah almost conclusive presumption that it has the same meaning when used in Article I. section 8. subsections 1 and 4. And I think. in thb light of the context and of the scope and object of the whole Constitution. and particularly of the whole of this section of the first article. which I shall presently consider. that presumption is made absolutely conclusive. In the phrase "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" we would argue from the facts above that. as the term has no other meaning elsewhere in the Constitution than one of the.two above given. the same must be the case here. and if it has either meaning it must have the first. But aside from this the words following. "citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." would seem to show that the authors of the amendment contemplated only the States. and this view is further emphasized by the anguage of the thirteenth amendment. to which I have alluded. which was fresh in their minds and which some of them had helped to frame. Besides. the amendment consisted mainly of prohibitions against the States. and the whole of it resulted from the conditions existing after the civil war. and was intended to secure its results and to give certain rights to persons of African descent residing in the States. and to prevent the States from taking away those rights.