Illegitimate Passage of the Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth amendment is a perfect example of radical republican despotism, legislative manipulation, shameful coercion, blatant dishonesty, and above all a burning desire to exact vengeance on an already defeated South, and not only conquer her but to humiliate and crush her.  There are so many constitutional and legislative irregularities in the 14th amendment that its legitimacy is extremely doubtful.  However, let us examine this amendment more closely.  The 14th Amendment is composed of 5 main parts: The 1st defines who is a citizen.  This was to “prevent" the South from implementing “black codes” to limit the rights of ex-slaves.  Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that the Northern states of Indiana, Illinois, Oregon, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin all had very severe black codes.  Section 2 eliminated the 3/5 rule for slaves in legislative representation.  The 3rd denied public office to anyone who had supported the Confederacy and therefore prevented any “Southern states rights” feelings from being encouraged and left the Southern states governments in the hands of Northerners and freed slaves.  section 4 required all citizens to pay for the US debt incurred during and after the war.  And lastly, section 5 gave congress the power to enforce the previous 4 sections.  In order to pass this amendment the radical northerners voted not toe seat the 22 senators and 58 representatives from the 11 Confederate states and were thus able to have a majority vote in favor.  After passing the Senate (even thought they were missing one vote to have the 2/3 necessary to pass), the amendment bypassed President Johnson (who was against the amendment) and was sent directly to the states for ratification.  10 of the 11 Southern states rejected the amendment, which should have killed it.  However, the radicals had another plan to enforce their amendment and that the same time strike a blow to the the Southern states.  On March 2, 1867, a Reconstruction Act was passed (over the veto of President Johnson) which revoked the legal status of the 10 Southern states and placed them under military control (though they were legal enough to ratify the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery).  In essence, after a long bloody war to “save the Union” the radical republicans kicked out the South and took complete control over them.  The only way any Southern states would be re-admitted into the Union was by acceptance of the 14th amendment.  6 states did so and thus the amendment passed but instead of a free Union it was now a coerced Union brought forth through an unconstitutional, fraudulent amendment.