SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary serviSlavery abol- tude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Who are citizens of the United States, and of the States; their ACTICLE XIV. (Adopted July 28th, 1868.) SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State privileges, etc. wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens 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. SEC. 2. Representatives shall be appointed among ment of repre- the several States according to their respective 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 Apportion sentatives. for President and Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except 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. SEC. 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- Disabilities; 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 officer 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 How removed. 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. public debt tioned. SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for Validity of the payment of pensions and bounties for services in sup- not to be quespressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of Certain debts any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims sumed or paid. shall be held illegal and void. SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. not to be as ARTICLE XV. (Adopted March 30th, 1870.) Right of suf SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States frage indeto vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United pendent of race or color. 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. LEGISLATION CONCERNING MINES. ACTS OF CONGRESS. An Act granting the Right of way to Ditch and Canal Owners over the Public Lands and for other Purposes. (Approved, July 26, 1866.) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives Mineral lands of the United Statee of America in Congress assembled, That declared open the mineral lands of the public domain, both surveyed to all citizens, and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and regulations,ete open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of to occupation etc., subject to Persons, etc., any vein of and made ex the same, and filing diagram, may enter the tract and re the United States, and those who have declared their intention to become citizens, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and subject also to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same may not be in conflict with the laws of the United States. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever any claiming with person or association of persons claim a vein or lode of out opposition, quartz, or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, quartz-bearing cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and ing occupied improved the same according to the local customs or penditures on rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon an amount of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may be lawful for said claimant or association of claimants to file in the local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the local laws customs and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such Patent to grant mine, together with the right to follow such vein or ceive a patent therefor. what. lode with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition. agram of tract SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That upon the filing of the diagram as provided in the second section of After filing dithis act, and posting the same in a conspicuous place claimed, what proceedings to on the claim together with a notice of intention to be had before apply for a patent, the register of the land office shall patent issues. publish a notice of the same in a newspaper published Notice to be nearest to the location of said claim, and shall also published. post such notice in his office for the period of ninety days; and after the expiration of said period, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the duty of the surveyor-general, upon application of the party, to survey the premises and make a plat thereof, Survey of plat indorsed with his approval, designating the number of premises. and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein ex posed; and upon the payment to the proper officer of Payment of of survey, etc. five dollars per acre, together with the cost of such five dollars per survey, plat, and notice, and giving satisfactory evi- acre and costs dence that said diagram and notice have been posted on the claim during the said period of ninety days, the register of the land office shall transmit to the general land office said plat, survey, and description; and a patent shall issue for the same thereupon. But said plat, survey or description shall in no case cover more Survey. plat, than one vein or lode, and no patent shall issue for only one vein, more than one vein or lode, which shall be expressed patent. in the patent issued. etc., to cover to be named in when the loca of mine are SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That when such location and entry of a mine shall be upon unsurveyed Proceedings lands, it shall and may be lawful, after the extension tion and entry thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the surveys to upon unsurthe limits of the premises according to the location and veyed lands. possession and plat aforesaid, and the surveyor-general may, in extending the surveys, vary the same from a rectangular form to suit the circumstances of the country and the local rules, laws, and customs of miners: Provided, That no location hereafter made shall Location not exceed two hundred feet in length along the vein for feet along vein each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to claim for disthe discoverer of the lode, with the right to follow right to follow such vein to any depth, with all its dips variations and vein to any to exceed 200 with additional coverer, and depth, etc. viii LEGISLATION CONCERNING MINES. angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface for the covenient working of the same as fixed by local Limit to num- rules: And provided further, That no person may make more than one location on the same lode, and not more than three thousand feet shall be taken in any one claim by any association of persons. ber and extent of locations. Further condi in patent. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further tion of sale and condition of sale in the absence of necessary legislato be expressed tion by Congress, the local legislature of any State or Territory may provide rules for working mines involving easements, drainage, and other necessary means to their complete development; and those conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent. Where adverse claimants ap pear, proceed ings stayed un til right is settled. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any adverse claimants to any mine located and claimed as as aforesaid shall appear before the approval of the survey, as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until a final settlement and adjudication in the courts of competent jurisdiction of Patent then to the rights of of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in other cases. issue. President may tional land dis SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President establish addi- of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized to tricts, etc., for establish additional land districts and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of this act. purposes of this act. Right of way SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for highways. for the construction of highways over the public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted. Owners of vested rights SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever by to use of water priority of possession, rights to the use of water for for mining, etc. mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes and right of have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized way for heals and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the to be protected canals and ditches granted. Damages. decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same: and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, however, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or |