Joint Resolution Proposing the 14th Amendment, 1866

The major provision of the 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States.”
An important provision was the statement “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.”

Joint Resolution Proposing the 14th Amendment 1866

Congress submitted this Joint Resolution proposing the 14th Amendment to the states in 1866. With the exception of Tennessee, the Southern states initially refused to ratify it. Congress then made ratification one of the requirements for re-admittance of the former Confederate States to the Union.

National Archives, General Records of the United States Government