The Sixteenth Amendment: Oppression To The United States

The Conservatives knew that majority of the states would ratify the amendment; so they agreed with the proposal to grant legislatures from the states to vote on the new amendment. (5) On July 2, 1909, the 16th Amendment was authorized and passed by congress. By February 3, 1913, the amendment had gotten three-quarters of the states to approve it—the number required by the Constitution for ratification. “Certified by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox on February 25, 1913, it then became the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.”(6) The 16th Amendment stated that “Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever sources derived, without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration.” (7) As a result of the 16th Amendment in 1913, because of exemptions and deductions, no more than 1 percent of the population paid income taxes. Tax rates started out at 1% and rose to 6% on income over $500,000. (8) With the 16th Amendment being passed through the necessary steps before becoming a constitution law, the federal government was allowed to enforce taxes on its citizens and people making money. This allowed the government to fund programs that included law enforcement, healthcare, and

Try to imagine life without the Constitution. Without the Constitution we eventually would end up with some form of tyranny. Within the Constitution there are sections to ensure all powers were equally distributed and that no one group or branch has too much power over the other. That section of the Constitution guards against tyranny. Tyranny is when a person or a group of people have absolute power. The idea of the Constitution came when some believed the Articles of Confederation were weak. The Article of Confederation were weak in ways such as weak central government, no money so they could not tax, boundary disputes, states are fighting and arguing and no respect for small nations and states. While framing a new Constitution James Madison was worried that this Constitution, that was meant to guard against tyranny would possibly lead to some form of tyranny. With the careful writing from our founding fathers the Constitution guards against tyranny by using a system of Checks and Balances and the system of Separation of Powers.

Martha Griffiths a lawyer once said, “This amendment [the Equal Rights Amendment], if passed, would be like a beacon which should awaken nine sleeping Rip Van Winkle 's to the fact that the twentieth century is passing into history.” A summary of the twenty-fourth amendment is banning poll taxes. That means that in the 1800’s to 1900’s they used to make you pay to vote for a President or a Vice President. This amendment was important to our country. Therefore, the 24th Amendment is an important amendment, there are pros and cons to this amendment, and is positive and negative.

Some people say Thaddeus Stevens’ quote “The greatest measure of the 19th century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in the world” is over exaggerated. However, this quote is the truth behind the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. In simpler terms, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed due to corruption, bargaining, and the help of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the course of the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln requested a re-voting of the Amendment, bargained with the House members, and never told a lie.

Over time our Constitution of the United States has given us more voting privileges. We’ve allowed most of our population to be able to vote now in 2017. The only people who can’t are people under the age of 18, aren’t registered, or not a citizen.

The U.S. Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times since ratified on June 21, 1788. These Amendments have been crucial to the up-keeping of America and its constant changes. The most of important of which being the 24th Amendment, which protected voting rights from taxes. The 24th amendment reads as followed “The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax”. The Amendments that led up to the 24th were just as significant, but brought no real change. This was huge for the equal rights movement and gave African-Americans a real opportunity to vote and have a voice in politics to one day change the lives of them and their children to come.

The British government was not looking for the best of the people. They were only thinking about what they wanted; the government was not interested in what the people wanted so they decided to make decisions on their own, which resulted in changes that form the United States today. Because of this, they were justified in rebelling and declaring independence.

At the end of the Civil War between the North and South arose the Reconstruction era. This was a time period of the late 1800s where the united states, specifically the North started to attempt the rebuilding of the South. Abolitionists were eager to see the end of slavery and Lincoln attempted to end slavery. President Lincoln attempted to put in place the Emancipation Proclamation which stated all slaves in confederate states would be free. This was to weaken the southern states; except, the confederate states did not obey. This proclamation also stated northern slaves would not be freed because Lincoln did not have the necessary power to do so. However, the North had many goals for Reconstruction as well. Except, the one overall goal of

In 1765 March 22, The Stamp Act began. It was when American colonists were taxed on any kind of paper product. Such as ship’s paper, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. All of the money that was taxed was used to pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachians Mountains. Although this act was unpopular among the colonists. Later on the colonists started to protest against paying taxes on paper products. The tax collectors were threatened and were almost forced to quit their jobs. The colonists that protested burned the stamps on the streets to show their aggression toward the tax collectors. Overall the colonists were not very happy with this “new

Imagine a world where one person has all the power and you have to obey their every command; this is why we have a constitution to protect us from tyranny. After being under the dictatorial rule of Britain for seven years, the Colonies broke away and decided to create the Constitution to manage the government. This was an uber challenge for the delegates tasked with writing the Constitution—they wanted to create a strong government without having a despot. In multiple ways, the Constitution protects American citizens from tyranny. Tyranny is when one person or group has too much power. To protect it’s people from tyranny the Constitution uses federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances.

Passed on September 25, 1789 and ratified on December 15, 1791 by Congress, the eighth amendment has been present in the United States for quite some time. Over time, the amendment has morphed and interpreted differently. In the Constitution it states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”. In the 1990s, individuals referenced the eighth amendment when discussing capital punishment or the death penalty. Death sentences were most frequent during the 1900s, resulting in some individuals declaring that it went against the amendment (Source A). Since then, opinions on the death penalty have fluctuated, some claim that is barbarous while others deem it to be necessary. The

The disenfranchisement of Black Americans is as old as their presence in The United States. This disenfranchisement manifests itself in many different ways and is perpetuated on an institutional and individual levels. The oppression that blacks face have been consistently resisted by Black people and our allies. One of the more favorable ways of resistance towards institutional racism in the past and in the present has been to create legal reform. Laws such as the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment, also referred to as Reconstruction Amendments, are some laws that alleviated the oppression black people faced. Even though those amendments were put into place the individual and institutional injustices that blacks faced were still prevalent. The

Some people may think that the 14th amendment does a poor job of protecting people’s rights. In document five it explains how on September 11, 2001,with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, it has caused video surveillance in the United States to increase. For example the U.S has programs that use facial recognition that help match photographs of criminals faces to the criminal. Another program that we use helps prevent suicide bombers from attacking. Some people may think that prevention of terrible events reoccuring or occurring is a good thing, but using security systems everywhere may be a violation of their rights and privacy. Such as the government tracking your every move, having the threat of people spying and blackmail,

The 17th Amendment of the Constitution once it was ratified by a majority of states in 1913 changed the way Senators were elected in the voting process. Prior to the ratification of the amendment, the founding fathers saw it fit that the state legislators be invested with the authority to assign states their chosen Senators. The debate on whether the amendment was significant or not has been argued on among scholars and critics alike. One can say the fact that a debate exists at all answers that question itself. The hysteria behind the attachment of the 17th amendment is that it sets precedent for future changes to laws concerning the balance of power between the states and our central government established by the countries Founding Fathers.

The 13th (1865), 14th (1868), and 15th Amendments (1870) were the initial amendments came in to the U.S during in 60 years. Known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, they were made to ensure the nondiscrimination for recently emancipated slaves. However the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) officially completed slavery within the U.S., many peoples were concerned that the right granted by war-time legislation would be capsize. The Republican Party controlled congress and thrust for constitutional amendments that would be more permanent and binding. The three most amendments prohibited slavery, granted residence rights to all population born or naturalized in the U.S. regardless of race, and prohibited