A Bill in part execution of the guaranty of a Republican form
of Government in the Constitution of the United States.
Whereas it is declared in the Constitution that the United States shall
guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government;
and whereas certain States have allowed their governments to be
subverted by rebellion, so that the duty is now cast upon Congress of
executing this guaranty: Now, therefore,
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That in all States lately
declared to be in rebellion there shall be no oligarchy invested with
peculiar privileges and powers, and there shall be no denial of rights,
civil or political, on account of race or color; but all persons
shall be equal before the law, whether in the court-room or at the
ballot-box. And this statute, made in pursuance of the Constitution,
shall be the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution or
laws of any such State to the contrary notwithstanding.
This bill was read, passed to a second reading, and ordered to
be printed.
* * * * *
The same bill, in another form, was introduced by Mr. Sumner,
February 2, 1866, and afterwards moved as a substitute for the
Constitutional Amendment on Representation.[5]