ABSTRACT
Everyone admits that a principal object of all the Reconstruction legislation and all the Amendments passed during Reconstruction, as well as the various proposals that led to the legislation and the Amendments, was the elevation of the negro. Indeed, a good case could be made that the first and second sections of the Fourteenth Amendment, as adopted, intended merely the “equal protection of the laws.” It is true that Congressman Bingham mentioned the “bill of rights” on occasion, but it is never fully clear what he meant by that phrase. The Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper to secure to the citizens of each State all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states and to all persons in the several States equal protection in the rights of life, liberty, and property.
