Section. 1. All persons [chattel and/or vassals] born [accountable for; assumed] or naturalized [registered] in the United States and subject [servants] to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens [pledged liegemen] of the United States [the liege-lord's territories] and of the state wherein they reside [or address of their person]. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge [make liable] the [limited, regulated and governed] privileges or immunities of [pledged] citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, [religious and/or political] liberty [in other words stripped from their Natural Liberty], or [pledged] property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person [liegeman] within its jurisdiction [governed territories] the equal protection of the [digested and unwritten] laws.
Section. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons [pledged liegeman] in each state, excluding Indians [federal prisoners] not taxed. But when the right [permission] to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President [liege-lord] and Vice [buffoon or jester]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 [the father's people] of such [e]state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens [pledged servants] of the United States, or in any way abridged [liable], 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.
Section. 3. No person [pledged citizen of the United States] shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath [of office], 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 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.
Section. 4. The validity of the public[commercial] debt of the United States, authorized by [federal] law, including debts incurred [became liable or subject to] for payment of pensions and bounties for [federal] services in suppressing insurrection [an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government] 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 [the act of processing] of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall [unless not manifested by form] be held illegal and void.
Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce[by legal contract of pledged servants], by appropriate [State] legislation, the provisions of this article.
LI'ABLE, a. [Fr. Her, to bind, L. ligo ; Norm, lige, a bond. See Liege.]1. Bound; obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable. The surety is liablefor the debt of his principal. The parent is not liable for debts contracted bya son who is a minor, except for necessaries.This use of liable is now common among lawyers. The phrase is abridged. Thesurety is liable, that is, bound to pay the debt of his principal.2. Subject ; obnoxious ; exposed. Proudly secure, yet liable to fall. Milton.Liable, in this sense, is always applied to evils. We never say, a man is liable tohappiness or prosperity, but he is liable to disease, calamities, censure ; he is liable toerr, to sin, to fall.LI'ABLENESS, ^ The state of beingLIABILITY, S" bound or obliged in law or justice; responsibihty. The officer wishes to discharge himself from his liability.