Amendment 14 punished the south for the entire rebellion, and the CivilWar. The way that Congress made the law made it seem that it was helping theFreedmen, however, most of the sections are directed to the south, or made sothat the only people who would violate these sections would be the southernstates.
- Paragraph 1 states that Ex-slaves made citizens if they have been bornin the United States. This part doesn’t hurt the south, in fact, it gives themand advantage on the number of reps in the House. It also helps the freedmensince it is giving them full rights as U.S. citizens and equality in the U.S.
- Paragraph 2 states that when a state denies citizens (freedmen) theright to vote, its representation shall be reduced. This is obviously hurtingthe southern states since the southerners didn’t want the freedmen voting, theywould be losing their representation in the House. However, for this to beeffective, the person must meet the current voting requirements.
- Paragraph 3 states that People who have been in rebellion are ineligiblefor federal and state office. In other words, if you were a military orpolitical leader for the Confederate States of America, than you can’t hold anyUnited States, or individual state office. This is punishment to those leadersof the Confederacy who have committed an act of treason. This is a suitablepunishment for these people who are not suited to hold any office.
- Paragraph 4 states that debts incurred in aid of rebellion are void.
This drastically hurts the people who supported the south. If someone had soldproducts to the south, expecting that after the war they would get paid a greatsum of money, than they would get nothing from the United States government andnothing from those states. This was a sort of “payback” for those people whoaided the south.
These first four paragraphs, which three of them have to do with hurtingthe south and only one to help the ex-slaves, have shown that this amendment waswhat the south got for having this Civil War. Without this amendment, thesouthern states could have gone unpunished, and possibly start another rebellion.
This amendment obviously goes against the south, due to all of the paragraphswhich have something directly to do with what the south did. Taking all thisinto account, the south, having started this war by attacking a U.S. fort,deserved it.
