photo #5435131

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: December 05, 2023 an early proposal for a constitutional amendment to safeguard civil rights Landmark Republican initiative. Thaddeus Stevens is one of four heroes on the cover of Back to Basics for the Republican Party. During the Civil War and first years of Reconstruction, he chaired the House Ways and Means Committee back when it handled both Ways and Means, and selected the Speaker. This made him, in effect, the Majority Leader. December 5th 1865, Thaddeus Stevens proposed a constitutional amendment declaring: "All national and state laws shall be equally applicable to every citizen, and no discrimination shall be made on account of race and color." This was the core of the 14th Amendment. The next day, Republican Congressman John Bingham followed with a more comprehensive proposal: "The Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to secure to all persons in every State within this Union equal protection in their rights of life, liberty and property." This text was even closer to what became enshrined in Article 1 of the GOP's 14th Amendment.