The Seventeenth Amendment

by on June 25, 2024 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Another 1913 Amendment, the Seventeenth changed the election of State Senators from being performed by the State Legislatures to being selected by popular vote of the citizens of the State, like the House of Representatives. The original Constitution had granted that power to the State Legislatures with the intention of granting the States direct control of their representatives to the Federal government. This would give them some power to keep the Federal government from growing out of their control. The combination of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments granted the Federal government the power to largely break free of this State influence to follow the path of Federal Supremacy we know today.

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The Sixteenth Amendment

by on June 24, 2024 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Another half century went by before we passed the Sixteenth Amendment, which gave the Federal government the power to collect direct taxes on any income from the American people. The Federal government mainly received its income via tariffs and various luxury or sin taxes before this. It had instituted a brief Income Tax as a wartime measure during the Civil War, but that expired in the 1870s, and the Supreme Court would later rule against direct taxes. A coalition of Democrats and Progressive Republicans cooperated to make the permanent Income Tax as we now know it a reality in 1913.

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The Fifteenth Amendment

by on June 23, 2024 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Another of the Post-Civil War amendments, the Fifteenth was focused entirely on voting. Just to make things clear to everybody, it says that right for citizens to vote shall not be denied based on race, color, or whether or not they used to be a slave. And just in case anyone thought they weren’t serious, Congress said they had the power to enforce it. While good intentioned, we all know it wasn’t enough. Democrat States would go on to institute Pole Taxes and other ways of stopping the former slaves from voting that had absolutely nothing to do with their race, color, or previous slavery. It would be another century before enough Northern Democrats joined ranks with the Republicans to end those particular tactics.

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The Fourteenth Amendment

by on June 22, 2024 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Fourteenth Amendment declared that anyone born in the United States or naturalized in it is a citizen of the United States, and that no State can take away their rights as a citizen without due process, nor deny them equal protection of the law. This was written to stop certain States from declaring former slaves to not be citizens, and therefore not eligible to vote. An interesting tidbit is that there is a “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” clause in that Amendment. If someone is subject to another jurisdiction, or a subject of another nation, are they a citizen of the United States? Many say no. Those who ignore this clause generally support birthright citizenship to children of foreign nationals born in the United States.

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The Thirteenth Amendment

by on June 21, 2024 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

It took us another six decades to get to the Thirteenth Amendment, and it was simple. No more slavery. And involuntary servitude can only happen if you are duly convicted of a crime. And just in case anybody thought they were joking, Congress declared that they had the power to enforce it. And as the old joke goes, the Democrats never forgave the Republicans for liberating their slaves…

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