HISTORY OF NEGRO CITIZENSHIP            693

knew that a measure so revolutionary as the abolition of
slavery, unless strongly supported by popular opinion,
would be useless and inoperative. Because it was a war
measure, and necessarily limited by that fact, the proc-
lamation had no application to such States as Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky and West Virginia, which had not
seceded, nor to large sections of other slave-holding
communities.
  It was partial and incomplete. It contained no guar-
antees for the future. It simply proclaimed the freedom
of the present generation of slaves in certain specified
localities in States.  The suppression of the rebellion
would, therefore, leave it an open question whether the
Southern States might not re-introduce slavery, either
by enslaving the children of the freedmen, or by procur-
ing slaves from those sections not affected by the procla-
mation. Hence, the friends of freedom and of Union
felt that the partial military act should be supplemented
by a universal civil act, and that this act should form a
part of the organic law of the land.   Accordingly, the
13th Amendment was passed through Congress in Jan.
1865, and was announced by the Secretary of State, as
ratified by the requisite number of States in December
,of the same year.   Thus all restrictions upon liberty
were removed, and Jefferson's principle that all men are
created free was made universal by constitutional enact-
ment. What had been previously a mere declaration
of a principle or sentiment confined in its practical op-
eration almost wholly to the Caucasian race, had now
become a part of the Nation's organic law, and included
in its beneficent operation the whole human race.
    PERIOD II. 1867-1877. THE ERA OF UNIVERSAL
                     CITIZENSHIP.
  The history of Negro citizenship begins with this
period. All men were free, but all men were not equal.
The colored man was free, but not a citizen.  Our polit-
ical status was undefined in law, and our condition was
    2




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 15, Num. 3

History of Negro Citizenship

W.

Volume:  15
Issue Number:  03
Page Number:  689
Date:  01/1899