The person having the greatest number of votes as vice-president shall be the vice president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appoint ed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the senate shall choose the vice-president ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of sena tors, and a majority of the whole shall be necessary to a choice.
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president, of the United States.
This is a substitute for the third para graph of section 1 of Article II of the consti tution and provides for the method of the election of president and vice-president by the electors, or in default of an election by them.
Thirteenth Amendment (1865). Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place sub ject to their jurisdiction.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This amendment has been recognized by the Supreme Court as having been passed with special reference to the completion of the enfranchisement of the African race; Ex parte Virginia, 100 U. S. 339, 25 L. Ed. 676 ; but the word "servitude" which is in cluded in it is of larger meaning than slav ery, and by the use of it the amendment operates to prohibit any kind of slavery, in cluding peonage and coolie labor; Butchers' Benevolent Ass'n v. Slaughter House Co., 16 Wall. (U. S.) 36, 21 L. Ed. 394; and every species of involuntary servitude; U. S. v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629g'1 Sup. Ct. 601, 27 L. Ed. 290 ; but imprisonment at hard labor, and unpaid, is in the strongest sense of the words within this exception; Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417, 5 Sup. Ct. 935, 29 L. Ed. 89. In a much later case than those which first defined the scope of this amendment, it is said : "The words 'invol untary servitude' have a 'larger meaning than slavery.' . . . The plain intention was to abolish slavery of whatever name and form and all its badges and incidents; to render impossible any state of bondage; to make labor free, by prohibiting that con trol by which . the personal service of one
man is disposed of or coerced for another's benefit which is the essence of involuntary servitude." Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U. S. "2,417 31 Sup. Ct. 145, 55 L. Ed. 191.
Fourteenth, Amendment (1868). All per born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there of, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citi zens of the United States ; 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.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respec tive numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for presi dent and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the mem bers of the legislature thereof, is denied to the male inhabitants of such state, being of twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, ex cept for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty one years of age in such state.
No person shall be a senator or represent ative in congress, or elector of president or vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of congress, or as an offi cer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.