Constitutional Amendment Process
Johnson's Cleveland Speech
Library of Congress Research Guide on The 14th Amendment
5. The 14th Amendment
Overview
Through the play Now's The Time and the accompanying curriculum, students will explore the Reconstruction Era through the life of Thaddeus Stevens and his colleagues as they sought to push for radical change in the making of a "new" America.
Now's The Time Lesson Plan: Scenes Seven, Eight and Nine
Instruction notes: Provide context for the students regarding the timeline of events. Outline the process of the passage of an amendment in Congress. Look at the breakdown of votes in both the House and the Senate for the 14th Amendment. Look specifically at the vote breakdown in terms of geography. Talk about the next step in the process of a Constitutional amendment.
The House passed the 14th Amendment (H.J. Res. 127) by a vote of 128 to 37, 19 not voting.
The Senate passed the 14th Amendment (H.J. Res. 127) with amendments by a vote of 33 to 11.
The House agreed to the Senate's amendments and passed the 14th Amendment (H. Res. 127) by a vote of 120 to 32, 32 not voting
PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL:
FESSENDEN: We’ve drafted a compromise.
STEVENS: My dear colleagues, I implore you -- vote yes!
FESSENDEN: The amendment will bypass him. It will go directly to the states for ratification. I believe no rebel state should be allowed back into the Union– or given a representative in Congress – untils it adopts the amendment. They won’t like that, but I believe it’s essential.
STEVENS: I will not throw away a great good because it is not perfect. I will take it, and leave it to be perfected by better men in better times.
JOHNSON: It is up to the state legislatures to stop this wicked and dangerous 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, our most sacred document. And now, after I have rallied people in state after state, I believe they will.
OBJECTIVES:
- Students will understand the process of passing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
- Students will follow the process of passing an amendment through the ratification process.
- Students will identify the ways in which compromises are made in order to pass legislation.
- Students will analyze primary source material in order to evaluate the varied positions on the 14th Amendment represented by Thaddeus Stevens and President Andrew Johnson.
KEY TERMS/PEOPLE:
- 14th Amendment
- Ratification
- Due Process
- Joint Committee on Reconstruction
- Congressional Election of 1866
- Thaddeus Stevens
- President Andrew Johnson
- John A Bingham
- Jacob Howard
ACTIVITY: Group Discussion
Students will read the 14th Amendment in its entirety. Break the students in 5 groups and assign each group one of the five sections of the amendment. Students will work together to interpret and summarize the meaning of their section and present to the class. A discussion would be useful to check comprehension and provide clarity especially regarding political strategy, citizenship,due process, equal protection under the law, and restructuring of political representation (Three-Fifths Compromise).
Next, students will read Johnson’s Cleveland Speech.
Ask the students to respond to the following questions:
- What is Johnson’s argument for not supporting the 14th Amendment?
- What motivated Johnson to push for states to vote against the ratification of the 14th Amendment?
ACTIVITY: Discussing Compromise
CONNECTING TO THE SCRIPT:
In the play, Stevens reflects upon his compromise of passing the 14th Amendment without suffrage for Black men. He states, “I will not throw away a great good because it is not perfect. I will take it, and leave it to be perfected by better men in better times.” Have students utilize the Now's The Time script and the Library of Congress Research Guide on The 14th Amendment to answer the following questions.
- What do we know about the original language of the 14th amendment after it left the House of Representatives and was presented to the Senate?
- What changes in the language did the Senate make?
- How does the dialogue between Stevens and Fessenden demonstrate what was happening in the legislative process?
- How does this back and forth demonstrate the difficulties of coming to compromise?
Stevens did not know at the time that the 15th Amendment bringing suffrage to Black men would happen so quickly. He died before this legislation came to pass.
- Stevens made the compromise anyway, why?
- How would the 14th Amendment relate to suffrage in former confederate states?
- How do you feel about the decision Stevens made?
- What role does compromise play in our political system today?
ACTIVITY: Looking at Legislation
Have students identify a piece of legislation and examine areas of concession to demonstrate how political compromise is achieved.
- What impact did this have on the scope of the legislation?
- Did this change who supported the legislation?
- Did this change whether or not the legislation passed?
- How did constituents react to this compromise?
ACTIVITY: A Letter To Thaddeus Stevens
Throughout the play, Now’s The Time, the playwright makes use of letters that reflect the different correspondence Thaddeus Stevens relied on as the primary modality of communication between both his colleagues and acquaintances during the era.
Ask students to write a letter to Thaddeus Stevens responding to the following prompt:
Thaddeus Stevens worked tirelessly to expand the rights of citizenship and the equality under the law. There are many testimonies to Stevens' work but perhaps that of the 14th Amendment has been the most powerful in its scope. How does the 14th Amendment impact your life today and what would you tell Thaddeus Stevens about the state of your rights today?
(Length can vary as for the time constraint or could be assigned as a take home assignment.)
Now's The Time Script: Scenes Seven, Eight and Nine
SCENE SEVEN – THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
Date: June 1866, mid-afternoon
Location: The Members’ restaurant in the U.S. Capitol
Characters: Stevens, Downing, Fessenden, Ensemble.
Stevens is seated at a table in the lightly populated restaurant. Downing approaches with a newspaper tucked under his arm. Stevens points for Downing to sit down at the table. Downing hesitates, remembering it’s not customary for him to do so, then does.
STEVENS
I’m waiting for Senator Fessenden, but until he arrives ---
Downing pulls out the newspaper.
DOWNING
--Have you heard the news from Memphis?!
STEVENS
A little.
DOWNING
Senseless carnage against an entire community that was powerless to defend itself.
STEVENS
What do you know from your sources?
DOWNING
The police, all white, mostly Irish, brawled with a few colored soldiers who were in town for a little fun. Rumors flew, and white mobs went on a deadly rampage. There’s hardly a black man, woman or child left in the city. They’re dead, dying or have fled in terror. The newspaper reports are almost too -- vivid --to read. Like this one:
Downing reads a newspaper article aloud.
“Dead bodies of Negroes were found here and there in the streets. The violence during the night had been altogether committed by the whites. Indeed, it is said firemen set some of the houses on fire and that numbers of the police joined the rioters. They burned the schools and attacked the teachers--
“A colored girl named Rachel Hatchell, a scholar…who was running out of a burning house… was hunted down, shot and thrown into the fire. Her body lay in the ashes … burned to a crisp, except her head and shoulders. Someone had kindly thrown a shawl over this horrid spectacle.”
Stevens pounds his fist on the table.
STEVENS
This cannot go unanswered by Congress!
DOWNING
Convene a Congressional inquiry -- now, while the evidence is fresh. Find out who committed these crimes. Discover which local authorities refused to stop it – and punish them all!
STEVENS
I’ll send my committee’s investigators to Memphis tomorrow. We’ve got to get to the bottom of what happened.
DOWNING
Something also has to be done about Johnson. Federal troops belatedly ended the massacre, but he’s pulling them out. Every Black person in the South could be murdered and he would not care!
STEVENS
I want him impeached!
DOWNING
Even that’s not enough. You must put the right to vote for black Americans into the Constitution. Iron-clad. And soon. Then my people can run for office and elect people who will protect us.
STEVENS
Johnson’s fighting the new Constitutional amendment with everything he’s got, and ---
Downing spots Fessenden entering the dining room.
DOWNING
-- (sotto voce) Senator Fessenden is on his way to the table.
Downing stands.
STEVENS (Con’t.)
--And even the Senate is dragging its heels on black suffrage.
Fessenden arrives at the table.
FESSENDEN
Hello, Mr. Downing. A glass of your fresh summer lemonade for me, please.
DOWNING
Good day, Senator.
STEVENS
I trust you will explain to Mr. Downing and me why the Senate is holding up the constitutional amendment – at a time when black families are being hunted down, murdered and even burned out of their homes.
DOWNING
Please don’t tell us the Senate is wavering on black suffrage!
FESSENDEN
We will do the best we can under the circumstances.
Fessenden sits.
DOWNING
The circumstances, Senator, are getting worse by the day for my people. Union troops were held back while local police joined in the killing. 46 blacks and 2 whites are dead. 91 homes and every school and church in the black community were burned to the ground.
FESSENDEN
My God.
STEVENS
I’m sending my committee there tomorrow.
FESSENDEN
I’ll dispatch Senate investigators with yours, Thaddeus. We need all the facts.
DOWNING
Respectfully, facts aren’t enough. For you, these are horrible statistics. For me, it’s much more. Three of the murdered soldiers are men I recruited for the Black Union regiments. I knew them and I loved them.
FESSENDEN
Please accept my condolences, Mr. Downing, and extend sympathy to the families – from the entire Congress.
DOWNING
We don’t need condolences. We need change!
FESSENDEN
Their murders are unforgivable. We must stop the violence!
DOWNING
The way to stop the violence is to amend the Constitution and guarantee us the vote.
FESSENDEN
I am here to discuss exactly that with Mr. Stevens. But I haven’t much time. The Congressman and I need to talk.
DOWNING
I understand.
Downing backs away.
DOWNING (Con’t.)
Someone will bring your lemonade, Senator. What kind of tea would you like, Congressman?
STEVENS
Gunpowder. And make it strong.
FESSENDEN
The Senate won’t pass the amendment with your language.
STEVENS
Specifically ---
FESSENDEN
The section requiring voting rights for every black man before a rebel state can return to Congress. We’ve—
STEVENS
--You’ve watered that down--
FESSENDEN
--We’ve drafted a compromise.
STEVENS
Didn’t you hear Mr. Downing? We cannot compromise on this.
FESSENDEN
I have lined up the votes for passage in the Senate by excluding suffrage and keeping the amendment race-neutral.
STEVENS
Nothing is race neutral! Our whole society revolves around race and the whites’ hatred of the black man!
FESSENDEN
The amendment grants citizenship to every person born here or naturalized. Everyone knows that includes former slaves, but the language is not explicitly about race.
STEVENS
You should remind your wavering Republican colleagues that our party needs black voters in the South to win the next election.
Fessenden places the draft of the 14th amendment on the table and points to the text.
FESSENDEN
Here. Let’s review what is included. Section One – Citizenship and equal protection under all the laws, federal and state.
STEVENS
You mean life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – if you’re white.
FESSENDEN
Damnit, Thad! You know that was hard for me to get. Even some Senators in our own party hate it.
STEVENS
And the president?
FESSENDEN
He will oppose it, but of course the amendment will bypass him and go directly to the states for ratification. I believe no rebel state should be allowed back into the Union – or given a representative in Congress – until it adopts the amendment. The rebels won’t like that, but I believe it’s essential.
Stevens scans Fessenden’s text.
FESSENDEN (Con’t.)
Your version was trying to do too much in a single Constitutional amendment.
STEVENS
Voting – for black men only, not even women – is too much ?
FESSENDEN
Right now, for my Senate colleagues, yes.
STEVENS
And Memphis? Isn’t the Senate outraged?!
FESSENDEN
Not outraged enough to force black suffrage on the states.
STEVENS
In our joint committee, you and I investigated more than 100 reports -- on the ground -- of savagery -- whippings, torture, murder – against black Americans across the South. We concluded that allowing ex-Confederates to rule in their former states is a policy of madness and folly. And that was before Memphis. You chaired that committee.
FESSENDEN
I wrote the report.
STEVENS
But---
FESSENDEN
--But conditions are volatile. Senators don’t want to inflame things further right now.
You know what’s going on. Republicans are united in ending slavery, even using our troops to protect the suffering people in the South. And we support their desire to vote. But it’s hard to overcome the belief – rooted in the Constitution -- that the federal government should leave control of the voting franchise to the states.
STEVENS
That is why we must change the constitution, with this amendment.
All black men vote -- for starters. Then women.
FESSENDEN
Senators are saying, “If we force that on the South, what could the federal government force on our own states?” You know many northern states don’t let blacks vote either. And women voting – forget it – most women don’t even support that.
I’m warning you – an amendment that’s too extreme will split our Republican caucus right down the middle.
Beat.
Let’s agree on language that’s less provocative --
STEVENS
--Weaker--
FESSENDEN
Not weaker. Less contentious. More durable. Something we can build on. Something that can pass.
Beat. Stevens picks up the draft amendment.
STEVENS
Will this hold our party together?
FESSENDEN
Take what we can get now – citizenship, equal protection under all the laws. It’s a lot. We can push suffrage later. Now is not the time for that!
Stevens contemplates the text.
STEVENS
I’m an old man. I haven’t much time left. In that, I am in sympathy with the Black man. Without real political and economic power, he hasn’t much time left either.
Stevens leans close to Fessenden
STEVENS (Con’t.)
Voting rights. Guaranteed. Now.
Beat.
FESSENDEN
If the House doesn’t accept the Senate version, the entire amendment is dead.
Blackout.
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE EIGHT – MUTUAL CONCESSION OR MUTUAL HOSTILITIES
Date: June 13, 1866
Location: The chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives
Characters: Stevens, Ensemble.
The scene opens to the rumble of reporters and visitors excitedly crowding the galleries, and a full chamber of House members. Stevens slowly and painfully makes his way to his desk and remains standing. He puts down his papers and looks at the crowd in the galleries. A hush descends.
STEVENS
I rise in support of this Constitutional amendment and to urge you to vote for it. It falls far short of my wishes, but it fulfills my hopes. I believe it is all that can be obtained in the present state of public opinion, which has been educated in error for a century. The first section defines who are citizens of our country. It declares this great privilege to belong to every person born or naturalized in the United States. This is an excellent provision.It means whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man in the same way and to the same degree. At present, different degrees of punishment are inflicted, not on account of the magnitude of the crime, but according to the color of the skin. The second section fixes the basis of representation in Congress. It is not as good as the section I wanted, which would have refused to allow any rebel state back in Congress if it did not permit its black male citizens to vote. But too few share my principle of universal suffrage. Believing, then, that this is the best we can get now, I accept it. You may ask why I accept so imperfect a proposition? I answer you: because I live among men and not among angels. Among men as intelligent, determined and independent as myself, who do not choose to yield their opinions to mine. Mutual concession is our only resort -- or mutual hostilities. I will not throw away a great good because it is not perfect. I will take it, and leave it to be perfected by better men in better times. My dear colleagues, I implore you -- vote yes!
Lights down as cheers rise from the crowd in the galleries. The sound of the presiding officer’s gavel pounding to quiet them is heard as lights fade to black.
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE NINE - JOHNSON’S NIGHTMARE
Time: September 1866.
Location: President’s Johnson bedroom in the White House
Characters: Johnson, Ensemble (with Downing, Smith, Stevens, Fessenden)
The stage is bare except for a bed center stage and the projection wall behind; it is dark except for a spot on Johnson in bed. Johnson has returned to the White House after a barnstorming trip through the states urging legislatures to reject the Fourteenth Amendment passed by Congress in June. The New Orleans massacres of Black Americans took place in early summer. He starts to toss and turn, talking in his sleep.
JOHNSON
Parasites…
Johnson settles down. A continuous loop of black-and-white images comes up on the back wall accompanied by a low, dissonant, buzzing drone. They slip in and out of focus, running quickly like a (21st century) video in Johnson’s sleepy head— headlines about Memphis, Rachel Hatchell, the recent New Orleans massacre, grainy photographs of the dead; photos of piles of dead bodies of Union soldiers from the Civil War; Civil War battle scenes; photos of crowds from a patriotic political rally; a few quick glimpses of Stevens, the image of a devil. The sound grows louder and louder under the video-like montage, a disturbing sound increasingly impossible to ignore. As the montage intensifies, Johnson tries to escape, putting pillows over his head, slinking deeper under the sheets, tossing and turning more wildly. Exhausted, he throws off the sheets and yells.
JOHNSON
Stop!
Johnson groggily rises out of bed, wearing his nightshirt (no nightcap-Sept. is warm). Spot follows Johnson.
A dream.
As he comes to full wakefulness, the sound fades out, montage slows and fades but not completely.
A bad dream. They don’t scare me.
Johnson stumbles a bit as he makes his way downstage.
The night … trying to torment me.
Turning and shaking his fist toward the wall with its montage still dimly visible and playing in a continuous, silent loop.
I don’t care about them. Let them persecute me!…I will not change! As Johnson arrives downstage, now fully awake, present and defiant, a silent phalanx of his political foes dressed in modern black, like figures from a dream, slowly enter the very dimly lit stage left (rear), one by one, single file: Downing, Stevens, Fessenden, Smith, then Ensemble members who represent anti-Johnson citizens at the rallies. They form several rows, like a chorus, center stage rear. Stevens and his radical friends are in league with the devil. They are a common gang of greedy bloodsuckers! They say they are great patriots, but have they ever gone into the field? Have they lost a son in the war, as I have? No! They just call everybody a traitor who disagrees with them. They are lazy, unpatriotic men who are growing fat at the public trough. Johnson (in nightgown) shifts into full rhetorical mode, facing the audience, he imagines he is addressing the large, cheering crowds at his Fourteenth Amendment rallies in the states. Meanwhile, the chorus moves slowly forward, step by step, during Johnson’s speech, until they are just behind him, but still shrouded in darkness.I have never been afraid of the people, and when I have all the truth, argument, fact and reason on my side, nothing can drive me from my purpose. It is up to the state legislatures to stop this wicked and dangerous 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, our most sacred document. And now, after I have rallied the people in state after state, I believe they will…. The crowds were enormous! No president has ever had bigger crowds! No one! Ever! They were huge. But I ask you, loyal and patriotic Americans – What has Congress done to restore the Union of the States?Nothing! Congress has done everything to prevent it. This poisonous fourteenth amendment to the constitution will resuscitate the spirit of rebellion and arrest the progress which I have made. My policies -- not theirs -- are drawing the states back into union -- and peace. I stand now as I did when the rebellion began - for the Union-- yet I am denounced as a traitor by the fanatics. But I have not changed! Let them go to hell! They will never defeat me. No. For I have remained firm. Steadfast. Loyal to our great purpose. To make the Union great again! We are the winners. My people. For the Union -- now and forever!
Johnson pumps his fists high above his head.
Blackout.
Now's The Time Video Lesson Five