The colored people in the United States are indebted to the beneficent
provisions of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of
the United States, for the establishment of their freedom and citizenship,
and it is to these mainly they must look for the maintenance of their
liberty and the protection of their civil rights. These amendments
followed close upon the Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1st,
1863, by President Lincoln, and his call for volunteers, which was
answered by more than three hundred thousand negro soldiers, who, during
three years of military service, helped the Union arms to victory at
Appomattox. Standing in the shadow of the awful calamity and deep distress
of the civil war, and grateful to God for peace and victory over the
rebellion, the American people, who upheld the Union, rose to the sublime
heights of doing justice to the former slaves, who had grown and
multiplied with the country from the early settlement at Jamestown. It
looked like an effort to pay them back for their years of faithfulness and
unrequited toil, by not only making them free but placing them on equal
footing with themselves in the fundamental law. Certainly, they intended
at least, that they should have as many rights under the Constitution as
are given to white naturalized citizens who come to this country from all
the nations of Europe.

The 13th amendment provides that neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States or any place subject
to their jurisdiction.

The 14th amendment provides in section one, that all persons born or
naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,