Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: April 20, 1861

The news has been confirmed. It was a brickbat “Plug Ugly” fight — the result of animal, and not intellectual or patriotic instincts. Baltimore has better men for the strife than bar-room champions. The absence of dignity in this assault will be productive of evil rather than good. Maryland is probably lost — for her fetters will be riveted before the secession of Virginia will be communicated by the senseless form of ratification a month hence. Woe, woe to the politicians of Virginia who have wrought this delay! It is now understood that the very day before the ordinance was passed, the members were gravely splitting hairs over proposed amendments to the Federal Constitution!

Guns are being fired on Capitol Hill in commemoration of secession, and the Confederate flag now floats unmolested from the summit of the capitol. I think they had better save the powder, etc.

At night. We have a gay illumination. This too is wrong. We had better save the candles.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 25

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, March 5, 1861

Shady Hill, 5 March, 1861.

Is it not a great satisfaction to have the dignity and force of the government once more asserted? To feel that there are strong and honest hands to hold it, in place of the feeble and false ones which for four months past have let it fall?

Lincoln's Inaugural is just what might have been expected from him, and falls but little short of what might have been desired. It is manly and straightforward; it is strong and plain enough to afford what is so greatly needed, a base upon which the sentiments of the uncorrupted part of the Northern people can find firm ground; and from which their course of action can take direction. But what will the seceded States say about it — still more, what will they do? I incline to believe that they will not try violence, and that their course as an independent Confederacy is nearly at an end.

Congress could not have done less harm than it has done in passing the proposal for a Constitutional Amendment.¹ I am sorry that Lincoln should have volunteered any approbation of the proposal, — though I have little fear that the Amendment can be adopted by a sufficient number of States to make it part of the Constitution. I do not wish to bind the future. I fully adopt the principle in regard to “domestic institutions” (what a euphuistic people about slavery we are!) of the Republican platform, but I do not want Congress bound never to pass laws to prevent the internal Slave Trade. Let Slavery alone in each state, — very well; but let us not promise never to try to stop Virginia from being nothing but a breeding ground of slaves.

The first act of this great play of Destruction of the Union has ended well. It seems now as if before the play were ended it would be generally found out that, as you and I have believed from the beginning, its proper name is, Destruction of the Slave Power.

When the history of American Slavery is written its open decline and fall will be dated from the day in which the South Carolina Declaration of Independence was signed. . . .

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¹ The Thirteenth Amendment as proposed by Congress in 1861, and approved by Lincoln in his inaugural address, forbade the passage of any amendment empowering Congress “to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.” As adopted and declared in force before the end of 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 219-20

Senator James W. Grimes to Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, January 28, 1861

Washington, January 28, 1861.

Your esteemed favor of the 17th inst. has reached me.

There appears to be a very great misunderstanding in the public mind, as to the present condition of affairs at the capital of the nation, and especially in relation to the demands of the disunionists upon the Union men of the North. I find that the impression prevails quite extensively that the “Crittenden proposition,” as it is called, is simply a reestablishment of the Missouri Compromise line. This is very far from the truth.

Mr. Crittenden proposes to extend the line of 36° 30' through to the Pacific Ocean, and to agree, by constitutional provision, to protect and defend slavery in all the territory of the United States south of that line. Nor is this all. He now proposes that this protection to slavery shall be extended to all territory that may hereafter be acquired south of that line. The sum and substance of the whole matter is, that we are asked, for the sake of peace, to surrender all our cherished ideas on the subject of slavery, and agree, in effect, to provide a slave code for the Territories south of 36° 30' and for the Mexican provinces, as soon as they shall be brought within our jurisdiction. It is demanded of us that we shall consent to change the Constitution into a genuine pro-slavery instrument, and to convert the Government into a great slave-breeding, slavery-extending empire.

Every man blessed with ordinary foresight must see what would be the inevitable and almost immediate consequence of the adoption of this provision as a part of the Constitution. It would disclose itself to be the very reverse of a measure of peace. Raids would at once begin upon the provinces of Mexico; war would ensue; the annexation of Sonora, Chihuahua, Cohahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and other provinces, would follow; they would be converted, at the instant of their acquisition, from free into slave Territories, and ultimately be admitted into the Union as slave States. Much as I love peace and seek to pursue it, I am not prepared to pay this price for it. Let no man in Iowa imagine for a moment that the Crittenden proposition is for a mere restoration of the Compromise line of 1820. It is simply and truly the application of the Breckinridge platform to all territory now acquired, or hereafter to be acquired south of 36° 30', and would result, if adopted, in the acquisition and admission of new slave States for the ostensible purpose of restoring what is called the equilibrium of the sections. The restoration of the Missouri Compromise line has been offered to the disunionists and contemptuously rejected. Their maxim is “rule or ruin.”

I confess that I look with amazement upon the course of the Northern sympathizers with the disunionists. Six years ago they assisted to break down a compromise of thirty-four years' standing, and defended their action by what they claimed to be the right of the people to determine for themselves what should be the character of their own domestic institutions. There was much plausibility in their argument. They made a party creed of it. Now, after the lapse of six short years, they have become so pro-slavery in their opinions that they are willing to ignore the past, and recognize and protect slavery in the very country which they boasted that their own act had made free.

There are other provisions in the Crittenden resolutions which to my mind are wholly inadmissible, but let them pass. My objection is to any compromise. I will never consent to compromises, or the imposition of terms upon me or the people I represent, under threats of breaking up the Government. I will not “give reasons under compulsion.” No surer or more effectual way could be devised for converting this into a revolutionary Government than the adoption of a compromise expedient at this time.

Eight months ago the four political parties of this country, in their several conventions, announced certain abstract propositions in their platforms which each believed to be true, and which, if acted upon, would in their opinion most conduce to the prosperity of the whole country. The issue upon these propositions was submitted to the people through the ballot-boxes. One party was successful, as either might have been, but for the lack of votes; and now one of the vanquished parties seeks to overthrow the Government, because they were not themselves the victors, and will only consent to stay their work of demolition upon the condition that we will agree to make their platform, which is abhorrent to us, a part of the Constitution of the country. After taking their chances for success, and being defeated in a fair and manly contest, they now seek to overthrow the Government under which they live, and to which they owe their allegiance. How rapidly are we following in the footsteps of the governments of Mexico and South America!

I do not believe that the public mind is now in a condition to calmly consider the great questions involved in the amendments proposed. But suppose the people were willing and anxious that such amendments to the Constitution should be submitted to them; suppose they were in a proper frame of mind to weigh them and decide upon their adoption; suppose their adoption was not attempted to be enforced by threats, can we have any assurance that this is the last demand to be made upon us? Can we be certain that success in this instance will not whet the appetite for new concessions and new demands, and that similar threats of secession and revolution will not succeed every future presidential election? Will the demand for new guarantees stop here? Shall we not be as liable to have our trade paralyzed, our finances deranged, our national flag insulted, the public property wrested from us and destroyed, and the Government itself overthrown, four years hence, if we amend the Constitution, as we should be if we now stand firmly by our principles and uphold the authority of the Government?

The question before the country, it seems to me, has assumed gigantic proportions. It has become something more than an issue on the slavery question growing out of the construction of the Constitution. The issue now before us is, whether we have a country, whether or not this is a nation. Is this a Government which Florida, with eighty thousand people, can destroy, by resolving herself out of the Union and seizing the forts and arsenals within her borders? That is the question presented us for our decision. Can a great and prosperous nation of thirty-three millions of people be destroyed by an act of secession of some of its members? Florida and her sister revolutionary States answer in the affirmative. We deny it. They undertake to act upon their professed belief, and secede, or, as I term it, rebel against the Government. While they are in this attitude of rebellion a compromise is presented to us for adoption, by which it is proposed, not to punish the rebellious States, but to entice them back into the Union. Who does not see that by adopting these compromise propositions we tacitly recognize the right of these States to secede? Their adoption at this time would completely demoralize the Government, and leave it in the power of any State to destroy. If Florida and South Carolina can secede because of the slavery question, what shall prevent Pennsylvania from seceding because the Government declines to adequately protect her iron and coal interests, or New England because her manufactures, or New York because her commerce is not sufficiently protected? I could agree to no compromise until the right to secede was fully renounced, because it would be a recognition of the right of one or more States to break up the Government at their will.

Iowa has a peculiar interest in this question. If this right of State revolution be conceded, her geographical position is such as to place her completely in the power of revolutionary States. Will she agree that one State can secede and take from her the mouth of the Mississippi River, that another can take from her the mouth of the Missouri, and that others shall be permitted to deprive her of the right of passage to the Atlantic Ocean? If she will not agree to this, it becomes her people to insist that the Constitution of the country shall be upheld, that the laws of the land shall be enforced, and that this pretended right of a State to destroy our national existence shall be sternly and emphatically rebuked. I know the people of Iowa well enough to believe that appeals to their magnanimity, if not successful, will be kindly received and considered, while appeals to their fears will pass by them as the idle wind, and that they will risk all things and endure all things in maintaining the honor of the national flag and in preserving the national Union.

One word more and I close this letter, already too long. At the commencement of the session, before revolution had assumed its present gigantic proportions, before any State had pretended to secede except South Carolina, before the forts and arsenals of the United States had been captured, the flag of the country fired upon, and the capital of the nation threatened, I assented, as a member of the Senatorial Committee of Thirteen, to three propositions, which were to the following effect, viz.:

1. That Congress should never be permitted to interfere with the domestic institutions of any State, or to abolish slavery therein.

2. That the several States should be advised to review their legislation in regard to persons of color, and repeal or modify all such laws as might conflict with the Constitution of the United States or with any of the laws of Congress made in pursuance thereof.

3. To admit Kansas into the Union under the Wyandotte constitution, and then to admit the remaining territory belonging to the United States as two States, one north and one south of the parallel of 36° 30' with the provision that these States might be subdivided and new ones erected therefrom whenever there should be sufficient population for one Representative in Congress upon sixty thousand square miles.

Those propositions, if adopted, would have quieted the apprehensions of the Southern people as to the intention of the people of the free States to interfere with slavery in the States, and would have finally disposed of all the territory belonging to the Government. They would have made two very inconvenient States, but they would have settled a very inconvenient question. They could have been adopted without any surrender of principle by anybody or any section, and therefore without any party and personal humiliation. But they were spurned by the disunionists. They preferred to plunge the country into revolution, and they have done it. It only remains for us now to obey and enforce the laws, and show to the world that this Government is strong enough to protect itself from rebellion within as well as from assault without.

The issue now made up for the decision of the people of this country is between law, order, the Union, and the Constitution, on the one hand, and revolution, anarchy, dissolution, and bloodshed, on the other. I do not doubt as to the side you and the people of Iowa will occupy in this contest.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 133-8

Diary of Rutherford B. Hayes, January 4, 1861

South Carolina has passed a secession ordinance, and Federal laws are set at naught in the State. Overt acts enough have been committed. Forts and arsenal taken, a revenue cutter seized, and Major Anderson besieged in Fort Sumter. Other cotton States are about to follow. Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation. Twenty millions in the temperate zone, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, full of vigor, industry, inventive genius, educated, and moral; increasing by immigration rapidly, and, above all, free — all free — will form a confederacy of twenty States scarcely inferior in real power to the unfortunate Union of thirty-three States which we had on the first of November. I do not even feel gloomy when I look forward. The reality is less frightful than the apprehension which we have all had these many years. Let us be temperate, calm, and just, but firm and resolute. Crittenden's compromise! *

Windham speaking of the rumor that Bonaparte was about to invade England said: "The danger of invasion is by no means equal to that of peace. A man may escape a pistol however near his head, but not a dose of poison."

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*Hayes's disapproval of the Crittenden Compromise is indicated by the exclamation point. The venerable John J. Crittenden, Senator from Kentucky, sought by eloquent appeals to induce Congress to submit to the States for approval an amendment to the Constitution forbidding Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it existed in Virginia or Maryland, or to abolish it in national territory south of latitude 36° 30' — the southern line of Kansas. This was to be irrepealable by any subsequent amendment, as were also certain existing paragraphs in the Constitution relating to slavery. Further, Mr. Crittenden wished Congress to strengthen the Fugitive Slave Law and to appeal to the States and to the people for its thorough enforcement.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 2-3

Constitutional Amendments 11-27

AMENDMENT XI

Passed by Congress March 4, 1794. Ratified February 7, 1795.

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

AMENDMENT XII

Passed by Congress December 9, 1803. Ratified June 15, 1804.

The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -- the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

AMENDMENT XIII

Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

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.

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XIV

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

AMENDMENT XV

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XVI

Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

AMENDMENT XVII

Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 1913.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

AMENDMENT XVIII

Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919.

Repealed by amendment 21.

Section 1.

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2.

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

AMENDMENT XIX

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XX

Passed by Congress March 2, 1932. Ratified January 23, 1933.

Section 1.

The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3.

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4.

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5.

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

AMENDMENT XXI

Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 1933.

Section 1.

The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.

The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

AMENDMENT XXII

Passed by Congress March 21, 1947. Ratified February 27, 1951.

Section 1.

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

AMENDMENT XXIII

Passed by Congress June 16, 1960. Ratified March 29, 1961.

Section 1.

The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XXIV

Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XXV

Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967.

Section 1.

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2.

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3.

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4.

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

AMENDMENT XXVI

Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XXVII

Originally proposed Sept. 25, 1789. Ratified May 7, 1992.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.