Government in america - Essay Example

Brown posits that amendments are a serious necessity in the United States constitution (The Birthright Question 106). Brown states that, “the 14th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 13, 1866 and finally ratified on July 9, 1868” (The Birthright Question 106). Hammerstrom expounds more on the 14th amendment, which gives equal rights to every citizen in the United States and completely abolished slavery (1). The historical and contemporary government development in the14th amendment is important to the American people and the government mandate is to protect and upheld the rights of the American people stated in the amendment.

The thought of independence means guaranteed equal rights to every citizen in a country. Stock explicates that the meaning of independence was not as was expected to the American people because the people only experienced the concept of equal rights after the 1868 14th amendment (139). The 14th amendment passed by the congress was after a long controversy and heated debate. According to Brown, racism was very dominant in the United State between the white and the black people (The Birthright Question 106).

The amendment reaffirms states and federal citizenship for all people irrespective of race whether born or have been naturalized in the United States. . Brown indicates that the 14th amendment granted citizenship to any person both within United States geographical area despite parent’s legal status or not (A United States Analysis 421). The 14th amendment indicates that a state will not abridge the privilege and freedom of American Citizen (Our Constitution 168). Therefore, every person in America as long as the citizen is above twenty-one is allowed to vote.

According to Brown, the Constitution of the United States has no clause that the term ‘slavery’ is directly cited. Article 1, Section 2 of the constitution apportioned tax and enumeration of representatives of Congress according to whole number of free persons (The Birthright Question 106). Therefore, slavery included the three-fifth of total number of people counted. The Congress bounded such people to slavery for a period of one thousands and ninety nine years. The constitution gave primary rights to government to the states rather than federal government (The Birthright Question 107).

Therefore, the southern states declared their withdrawal from the union. These happened when Abraham Lincoln voiced his support for the states right of withdrawal. In 1854, establishment of the Republic Party was to stop slavery in America and this contributed to Abraham Lincoln elected as the president of America. After the election of Abraham Lincoln, the southern state seceded from the union leading to the Republican Party and the northern states having absolute control of the federal government (The Birthright Question 108).

In 1862, the congress passed laws to confiscate all slaves from the southern states therefore using the freed slaves as soldiers to fight against the southern state. The Civil war between the states