TODAY IN HISTORY: July 28 - Today's Stories: The Fourteenth Amendment, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, The “Bonus Army”
The Fourteenth Amendment
On July 28, 1868, Secretary of State William Seward issued a proclamation certifying without reservation that the Fourteenth Amendment was a part of the United States Constitution. The required number of states had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment a few weeks earlier on July 9, 1868. Known as one of the “Reconstruction Amendments” along with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment forbids any state to deny to any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” With its broadly phrased language, the Fourteenth Amendment continues to provide a basis for civil rights claims in the United States.
Soon after ratification, the Slaughterhouse Case tested the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment. Brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1873, the suit argued that the monopoly the Louisiana legislature granted to a New Orleans slaughtering company abridged other businessmen’s privileges as American citizens and deprived them of property without due process of the law. The court ruled against the slaughterhouses, narrowly interpreting “the privileges and immunities” of citizens and stating that the amendment did not extend to the property rights of businessmen. In their dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Johnson Field, Joseph P. Bradley, and Noah Haynes Swayne wrote that, in considering the Fourteenth Amendment,
the right to pursue any lawful trade or avocation, without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons, is one of the privileges of citizens of the United States which can not be abridged by state legislation.Stephen Johnson Field, Joseph P. Bradley, and Noah Haynes Swayne, The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution Considered… Washington, D.C.: Chas. W. Gordon, Printer, 1873. African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907. Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Women tried to use the new amendment to affirm their right to vote. In 1871, Sara J. Spencer and Sarah E. Webster each brought cases before the District of Columbia court arguing that they were enfranchised by the Fourteenth Amendment. Their lawyers argued that while District law specified that “male residents” could vote, passage of the Fourteenth Amendment nullified that requirement.
…in the presence of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, which confers the elective franchise upon “all persons,” this word “male” is as if unwritten, and, [therefore], the statute, constitutionally, reads, “That all citizens shall be entitled to vote.”Albert Gallatin Riddle, Suffrage Conferred by the Fourteenth Amendment… Washington, D.C.: Judd & Detweiler, Printers and Publishers, 1871. National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Riddle further argued on the women’s behalf that “the right to vote is a natural right,” central to the notion of citizenship. Today, the right to vote is considered a fundamental civil right of all United States citizens. But, in nineteenth-century America, political rights, including enfranchisement, were viewed as distinct from civil rights.
On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities were considered sufficient to satisfy the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision established a pattern in American society, until May 17, 1954, when the Court reversed the Plessy decision. In the case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka (argued for Brown by Thurgood Marshall), the Court held that segregation of public schools is a denial of equal protection under the law.
Learn More
- The Web guide Primary Documents in American History: 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution compiles links to digital materials related to the 14th Amendment such as government documents, pamphlets, and newspaper articles that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 14th Amendment and a selected bibliography.
- Explore the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection and the online exhibit The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship to learn more about efforts to gain the right to vote.
- Read manuscripts including William O. Douglas to Earl Warren, 11 May 1954; Harold H. Burton to Warren, 17 May 1954; and Felix Frankfurter to Warren, 17 May 1954 all concerning Chief Justice Warren’s decision in the Brown v. the Board of Education decision, as well as Felix Frankfurter’s draft decree to enforce the Brown decision. See also a 1941 memo from Thurgood Marshall to NAACP staff on Saving the Race. These manuscripts are part of the online collection Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Years.
- A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875 contains a wide variety of congressional information from that time period. Search this collection in the 39th Congress (1865–67) to locate debate concerning passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
One of America’s most prominent first ladies, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was born on July 28, 1929. Educated at Miss Porter’s School, Vassar College, and the Sorbonne, she earned a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University. After college, Onassis worked as the Washington Times-Herald‘s “inquiring photographer.”
In 1952, she met the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and a year later the two were married. The Kennedys had two children who grew to adulthood, Caroline, born in 1957, and John Jr., born shortly after his father’s 1960 election as president.
To the role of First Lady, Mrs. Kennedy brought her interest in history and her appreciation of the fine and decorative arts. She focused on restoring the White House rather than merely redecorating her new home. Mrs. Kennedy established a White House Fine Arts Commission, hired a curator, and published the first historic guide to the Executive Mansion. She used her position and influence to acquire significant antiques for the residence. In 1962, the First Lady welcomed the public into the residence by hosting the first televised tour of the White House.
Mrs. Kennedy carried out the more traditional duties of presidential hostess with grace and style. In addition to presiding over state functions at home, she was a successful ambassador to foreign shores. On trips abroad, she proved nearly as popular as the president. Well educated, fashionably dressed, and fluent in their language, she was embraced by the French on a 1961 trip. His wife was so admired there, that President Kennedy quipped at a state dinner, “I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself…I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.” She was also warmly welcomed on a solo goodwill tour to India and Pakistan the following year.
Following President Kennedy’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy’s image was seared into the minds of the American public who, via television, saw her return, blood-stained, to the capital. Mrs. Kennedy’s remarkable composure in the days that followed, and her quiet determination to see the slain president buried in an appropriate manner facilitated the collective mourning of the American people.
In 1968, Mrs. Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. After his death in 1975, she embarked on a successful career as an editor in the publishing industry. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis died in 1994 and is buried beside her first husband in Arlington National Cemetery.
Learn More
- Search Today in History on Kennedy to learn more about the president and his administration.
- Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Yearscontains a letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to Toni Frissell discussing Frissell’s photographs of the Kennedy wedding reception.
- For images of other first ladies, browse Image Lists prepared by the Library’s Prints & Photograhps Division: Chronological List of Presidents, First Ladies, and Vice Presidents of the United States and Alphabetical List of First Ladies of the United States.
- For additional material, visit the White House Web site and its feature on the Kennedys.
- View the online biography and other resources about Jacqueline Kennedy found on the Web site of The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum , which is in Boston, Massachusetts.
The “Bonus Army”
On July 28, 1932, protesters known as the “Bonus Army,” or “Bonus Expeditionary Forces (B.E.F.),” who had gathered in the nation’s capital to demand an immediate lump-sum payment of pension funds (benefits) for their military service during World War I, were confronted by Federal troops (cavalry, machine-gunners, and infantry) following President Herbert Hoover‘s orders to evacuate. (While Congress had approved the payment in 1924, the bonus was not payable until 1945.) The presence of the Bonus Army was a continuing embarrassment and source of difficulty for Hoover. He sent in troops under the command of Brigadier Perry L. Miles and General Douglas MacArthur. The veterans faced tear-gas bombs, bayonets, and tanks. Riots erupted and the veterans eventually disbanded.
Suffering from the economic devastation of the Great Depression, veterans began assembling nationwide in March for their journey to the nation’s capital. Estimates for the B.E.F. range widely—from a low of 20,000 persons to a high of 65,000 persons (including their families) by the summer of 1932. The veterans made their presence known to Congress—lobbying for payment and marching up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. They camped out in shacks and tents along the Anacostia River and health officials worried about the threat of disease.
A second Bonus Army came to Washington in May 1933 to appeal to the new administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This time they were greeted by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Although the bonus pay legislation was again defeated in Congress, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) authorized jobs for 25,000 veterans. Congress eventually passed a bill authorizing early payment of the veterans’ benefits in 1936 over Roosevelt’s third veto. The Bonus Army paved the way for the G.I. Bill of Rights.
Learn More
- Search on bonus veteran in the Horydczak Collection for more photographs of the protesters and the Washington, D.C. encampment. See, for example, images of an Indian Bonus Veteran, the camp of Bonus Veterans from Passaic and Patterson, New Jersey, and a panoramic View of [the] Bonus Veterans Camp.
- Search on Bonus Expeditionary Forces or bonus army in the Library of Congress’s pictorial collections to retrieve more images of veterans and their families converging in Washington, D.C. The photographic collections also contain nearly 500 items related to the Civilian Conservation Corps.
- Listen to The Bonus Army: An American Epic by Paul Dickson and Thomas Allen, a Library of Congress Webcast based on their book.
- View A Guide to World War I Materials for materials including photographs, documents, newspapers, films, sheet music, and sound recordings. This guide compiles links to World War I resources throughout the Library of Congress Web site as well as links to external Web sites focusing on World War I and a bibliography containing selections for both general and younger readers.
- View the online version of the Library of Congress’s exhibition Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I.
- View the data pages on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey to read the Written Historical and Descriptive Dataof the CCC in the National Capital Region of the National Park Service during the time of the Bonus March.
- Listen to the Campaign Song: against Grover Cleveland which provides a lesson on how folk music may be impacted by current events as it is passed from generation to generation. While the song dates back to the late 1800s, the field notes state, “Second verse is an old Wobbly song, and last verse is a Bonus Army song.” Search on the term bonus army in the collection California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell to find this piece recorded on August 1, 1939.
- View materials from the National Archives on the Bonus Army March on Washington including a brief video of Federal troops clearing the encampment.
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