The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, was intended to protect the civil rights of all citizens, particularly freedmen, and clarified some of the requirements for election to Congress. Radical Republicans also took the opportunity to include a section that barred former officers of the Confederacy from being elected to federal offices.

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...