JANUARY
31, 1865:
Far too late for
the promotion to have much bearing on the war, Confederate President Jefferson
Davis promotes Robert E. Lee to General-In-Chief of all Confederate
armies.
By
hook and by crook, by foul means and fair, the Thirteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution finally comes up for a vote in the House of Representatives.
The
final language of the Amendment is clinical:
Section 1. Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, 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.
Section 2. Congress
shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
It
was not always so. Charles Sumner, one of the architects of Abolition, had
written an early draft which enraged many members of Congress:
“All persons are equal
before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave; and the Congress
shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this
declaration into effect everywhere in the United States.”
Even
the idea of “equality before the law” for blacks was too much for most Civil
War-era Congressmen to swallow. The Senate had passed the amendment on April 8,
1864, by a vote of 38 to 6, but the Amendment had gone down to defeat in the
House on June 15, 1864 by a vote of 93 to 64.
Lincoln
had worked hard to ensure passage this time, appealing to morality, dispensing
patronage, twisting arms, and even bribing a few holdouts. The inopportune
appearance of the Southern Peace Commissioners, and Lincoln’s successful
attempt to stifle them, was the last hurdle. When the vote was called, the amendment
finally passed by a vote of 119 to 56, just two votes over the necessary
two-thirds majority. All the 16 Democrats who supported the Amendment were lame
ducks who had done so in response to the President’s varied forms of entreaty.
The
House erupted in celebration. The African-American spectators embraced each
other. The Copperheads slunk out of the House Chamber. Southern agents gathered
together, waiting for orders.
Thaddeus Stevens, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, leader of the Radical Republicans, a fierce proponent of equal rights for African-Americans, and Lincoln’s sometime nemesis, sometime ally, exulted, calling the Thirteenth Amendment, "The greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America.”
Thaddeus Stevens, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, leader of the Radical Republicans, a fierce proponent of equal rights for African-Americans, and Lincoln’s sometime nemesis, sometime ally, exulted, calling the Thirteenth Amendment, "The greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America.”
The
President signed the Amendment the next day, an act not Constitutionally required, and it was sent to the States for
ratification. The Radical Republicans, who had blocked the counting of
“Reconstruction” Electoral votes permitted the counting of “Reconstruction”
Abolition votes. Every State that voted had already abolished slavery within
its borders, whether voluntarily or as a condition precedent to readmission to
the Union. It was not always a welcome choice.
The
Thirteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution on December 6, 1865, based
on the following ratifications. (R) indicates a Reconstructed State government.
Not all “Reconstructed” governments were completely formally organized; nor did
they all meet in their official State capitals:
1. Illinois: February 1, 1865
2. Rhode Island: February
2, 1865
3. Michigan: February 3, 1865
4. Maryland: February 3, 1865
5. New York: February 3, 1865
6. Pennsylvania: February 3, 1865
7. West Virginia: February 3, 1865
8. Missouri : February 6, 1865
9. Maine: February 7, 1865
10. Kansas: February 7, 1865
11. Massachusetts: February 7, 1865
12. Virginia (R): February 9, 1865
13. Ohio: February
10, 1865
14. Indiana: February 13, 1865
15. Nevada: February 16, 1865
16. Louisiana (R): February 17, 1865
17. Minnesota: February
23, 1865
18. Wisconsin: February
24, 1865
19. Vermont:
March 8, 1865
20. Tennessee
(R): April
7, 1865
21. Arkansas (R): April
14, 1865
POST-WAR ENACTMENTS
(1865)
23.New Hampshire: July 1, 1865
24.South Carolina (R): November 13, 1865
25.Alabama
(R): December 2, 1865
26.North
Carolina (R): December 4, 1865
27. Georgia (R): December
6, 1865
TWENTY-SEVEN
NEEDED FOR FORMAL ENACTMENT
POST-ENACTMENT
RATIFICATIONS --- NINTEENTH CENTURY
28. Oregon:
December 8, 1865
29. California:
December 19, 1865
30. Florida
(R): December
28, 1865. Reaff’d June 9, 1869
31. Iowa:
January 15,
1866
32. New
Jersey: Rej.
March 16, 1865. Passed Jan 23, 1866
33.
Texas (R): February
18, 1870
POST-ENACTMENT
RATIFICATIONS --- TWENTIETH CENTURY
34.
Delaware: Rej. Feb.
8, 1865. Enact. February 12, 1901
35. Kentucky:
Rej. Feb. 24,
1865. Enact. March 18, 1976
POST-ENACTMENT RATIFICATIONS --- TWENTIETH-FIRST CENTURY
36.Mississippi: Rej.
Dec. 5, 1865. Enact. March 16, 1995.
Certified by the Federal Government on
February 7, 2013
Slavery
is dead.
