“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” ROP 266.4
In order that this amendment might be effective in all its scope, it was essential that the basis of citizenship should be changed. ROP 266.5
“If we were now to have a broader nationality as the result of our civil struggle, it was apparent to the mass of men, as well as to the publicist and statesman, that citizenship should be placed on unquestionable ground, on ground so plain that the humblest man who should inherit its protection would comprehend the extent and significance of his title.”—Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II, p. 311. ROP 266.6
Accordingly, the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution was adopted, the first section of which reads as follows:- ROP 266.7