There should and could have been a constitutional convention at the end of the Civil War, in 1865-1866. The new one would have corrected the grave errors in the first one, like the 3/5s clause provision favoring Southern representation and the Electoral College, which repeals the popular vote. Instead. They merely amended the old 1789 constitution, adding 3 post-war provisions (13-15th Amendments) to deal with the reality of slavery's abolition (except in prison); Africans ' involuntary citizenship in American society; and later the right to vote in federal elections in 1870.
But there was no new constitutional convention (that would have excluded rebels, traitors, Confederates). Instead. The halo of whiteness was restored in the land; whatever "rights" blacks were given by law, were violated in court and in the country at large. We yet abide in the shade, shadows of governmental failures to obey its own laws, repeatedly.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
NO CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION?
There should and could have been a constitutional convention at the end of the Civil War, in 1865-1866. The new one would have corrected the grave errors in the first one, like the 3/5s clause provision favoring Southern representation and the Electoral College, which repeals the popular vote. Instead. They merely amended the old 1789 constitution, adding 3 post-war provisions (13-15th Amendments) to deal with the reality of slavery's abolition (except in prison); Africans ' involuntary citizenship in American society; and later the right to vote in federal elections in 1870.
But there was no new constitutional convention (that would have excluded rebels, traitors, Confederates). Instead. The halo of whiteness was restored in the land; whatever "rights" blacks were given by law, were violated in court and in the country at large. We yet abide in the shade, shadows of governmental failures to obey its own laws, repeatedly.