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 Published in: Acts and Resolutions of the Second Session
of the 38th Congress
[Thirteenth Amendment]. Congress of the United States; Printed Document; Washington, [D.C.], 1865. 203 pp. Inventory# 20249 $950
Historical Background: The text of Acts of Congress, passed from December 5, 1864 to March 4, 1865. This covers all matters under the jurisdiction of the legislature, including appropriations, taxation, construction of roads and railroads, and management of American Indian affairs.
The most important single piece of legislation is the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude, approved on February 1, 1865, is published on page 168. This was the first change made to the Constitution in over sixty years, and the first substantive change to America’s conception of its liberties since the Bill of Rights was sent to the states for approval in 1789. “...ARTICLE XIII
SEC. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a 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...” Lincoln, believing slavery to be morally wrong, had championed against it for most of his political career. However, he also recognized that the president did not possess the Constitutional power to outlaw the institution, except, perhaps, as a matter of military necessity. The power to fully abolish slavery, he acknowledged, rested with Congress. Therefore, he carefully crafted the Emancipation Proclamation to affect only those states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863. He then began to push for a Constitutional amendment that would forever abolish slavery in the United States. Such an amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, with a vote of 38 to 6. Two months later, however, it was defeated in the House of Representatives, 93 to 65. Lincoln, not about to give up, made abolition a central plank of the Republican platform and his re-election campaign. The 1864 election gave Lincoln and his party enough seats in the House to guarantee passage of the amendment. Not content to wait until the new Congress met in March, however, supporters brought the measure to another vote in the House on January 31, 1865. This time it passed, 119 to 56, with 8 abstentions. The outcome of the vote had been in doubt up until the final hour. A Pennsylvania Democrat, Archibald McAllister, opened the debate by explaining why he had changed his vote from a “Nay” to an “Aye.” He had been in favor of exhausting all means of conciliation, McAllister stated, but was now satisfied that nothing short of independence would satisfy the Southern Confederacy, and that therefore it must be destroyed, and he must cast his vote against its cornerstone, and declare eternal war with the enemies of the country. Fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Alexander Hamilton Coffroth, who was also changing his vote, followed, urging approval of the amendment. Arguments continued until, finally, the votes were tallied. When Speaker Colfax declared the results, “a moment of silence succeeded, and then, from floor and galleries, burst a simultaneous shout of joy and triumph, spontaneous, irrepressible and uncontrollable, swelling and prolonged in one vast volume of reverberating thunder…” (Report of the special committee on the passage by the House of Representatives of the constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery. January 31st, 1865: The Action of the Union League Club on the Amendment, February 9, 1865. “From Slavery to Freedom.” American Memory, Library of Congress). After its passage, and publication with the Acts of Congress, and before the amendment could become law, ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures was required. Accordingly, Secretary of State William H. Seward immediately sent certified copies of the resolution to each governor. But even before a formal copy was received, one state had ratified the thirteenth amendment: In a show of support for the president, his home state had voted in favor of ratification on February 1, the same day that Lincoln signed the measure. Governor Richard J. Oglesby telegraphed the news to Lincoln at 7:25 that evening, informing him that “[T]he Legislature has by a large majority ratified the amendment to the Constitution. All suppose you had signed the Joint resolution of Congress. Great enthusiasm” (Oglesby to Lincoln, February 1, 1865, AL Papers at the Library of Congress). Five minutes later, Ward H. Lamon, the president’s old law partner, and Edward L. Baker, editor of the Illinois State Journal, relayed the same news. The amendment had passed, they exclaimed triumphantly, “with a great hurrah” (Lamon and Baker to Lincoln, February 1, 1865, AL Papers at the Library of Congress). Addressing a Washington, D.C. crowd celebrating the historic event, Lincoln offered congratulations on the nation’s great moral victory, but noted that there was still work to be done – the states had to consummate Congress’s action. Illinois, he informed them had already done its part. Maryland was about half through, Lincoln added, but he felt proud that Illinois was “a little ahead” (contemporary newspaper accounts of Lincoln’s speech, Basler 8:255). By the time Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, twenty states had ratified the amendment, including Louisiana and Tennessee. Governments of the latter two states had been reconstructed under Lincoln’s so-called “Ten Percent Plan.” A component of his December 8, 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, the plan guaranteed presidential recognition of new state governments once the number of persons swearing allegiance to the United States equaled ten percent of the number of votes cast in that state in the 1860 presidential election. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to see the amendment become law. On April 14, 1865, Arkansas became the 21st state to ratify the measure; the approval of only six more states was required. That evening, Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. With Georgia’s ratification on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution. When the amendment went into effect twelve days later, it freed nearly a million slaves still held in bondage. By the end of January 1866, though not required for implementation, five more states had added their votes of approval. The remaining states – Texas, Delaware, Kentucky and Mississippi – finally ratified the amendment in 1870, 1901, 1976 and 1995, respectively.
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