States.

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_ (_two-thirds of both Houses
concurring_), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures
of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures,
shall be valid as a part of the Constitution, viz;

ARTICLE XV.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

And further, that it appears from official documents on file in this
Department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the
States of North Carolina, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin,
Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas,
Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire,
Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa,
Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas; in all,
twenty-nine States;

And further, that the States whose legislatures have so ratified the
said proposed amendment constitute three-fourths of the whole number