January 31, 1865: Passage of The Thirteenth Amendment: ""The greatest measure of the nineteenth century . . ."

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.”

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:

ENACTMENTS DURING THE WAR

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)

    22. Connecticut:                   May 4, 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.