"-- what need was there, in the literal sense, for the 14th Amendment in order to free slaves?"
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The 14th was written, in part, to insure the individual rights of exslaves from state infringments..
THE JURISPRUDENCE OF THE SECOND AND FOURTEENTH AMENDMENTS
Address:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068014/posts Read the ratification debates from 1868 for a real education on individual rights as seen by congressmen of the day.
The 14th was written, in part, to insure the individual rights of exslaves from state infringments.. That's all well and good. That is why I couched my statement by saying 'in the literal sense.' My point being that black mens' rights were already covered by the Constitution, State's rights notwithstanding, if it had been interpreted without prejucice. It was the stubborn misinterpretation of State's rights that forced the artifice of the 14th Amendment to be necessary.