Hacker, Louis, M. 1940. The Triumph of American Capitalism: The Development
1 387: 14th Amendment, drawn up by congressional Joint Committee of
Fifteen, of which Radicals dominated. Unlike other amendments
contained more than 1 proposition. Section 1 was much like old
Civil Rights Law, but it contained a clause "nor shall any state
deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due
process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws." Roscoe Conkling, a member of Joint
Committee, said that law was intended to protect property rights
against state legislatures, thus purposely written "due process"
and "equal protection". see Graham, H. J. "The 'Conspiracy Theory'
of the Fourteenth Amendment." Yale Law Journal, vol. xlvii (1938),
p. 171-94. Beard, Charles and Mary. 1933. The Rise of American Civilization. 2 vols.
113: "Long afterward Roscoe Conkling, the eminent corporation lawyer of New York, a colleague of Bingham on the congressional committee, confirmed this view. While arguing a tax case for a railway company before the Supreme Court in 1882, he declared that the protection of freedmen was by no means the sole purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment. "At the time the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified," he said, "individuals and joint stock companies were appealing for congressional and administrative protection against invidious and discriminating state and local taxes .... That complaints of oppression in respect of property and other rights made by citizens of northern states who took up residence in the South were rife in and out of Congress, none of us can forget .... Those who devised the fourteenth Ammendment wrought in grave sincerity .... They planted in the Constitution a monumental truth to stand four square to whatever wind might blow. That truth is but the golden rule, so entrenched as to curb the many who would do to the few as they would not have the few do to them."
JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> The 14A? This is false and preposterous. It was written by radical Republicans to ensure enforcement of Reconstruction civil rights statutes. There is no serious debate about the issue. the S.Ct. later gave corporations the status of persons under the 14A, but that was not its original intent. --jks
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Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901