After the fall elections in 1864 passage of the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery was inevitable. In 1864 the Thirteenth Amendment passed the Republican controlled Senate with an overwhelming majority of 38-6. In the House the Amendment failed 93-65, thirteen votes shy of the two-thirds necessary for passage. In November the Republicans in the House gained 46 seats and would have a majority of 134 when the new House was seated. Nonetheless, the Lincoln administration was eager to undertake another vote in the House when the old Congress came into session after the election in order to present former Confederate states with a fait accompli when they were swiftly brought back into the Union after the War, as Lincoln wished. Lincoln made direct emotional appeals to several Democrats in favor of the Amendment. Favors and appointments were offered to Democrats who switched their votes. The Amendment passed 119-56. Black spectators cheered after passage and several members of Congress openly wept. Here is the text of the Amendment:
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.
The Emancipation Proclamation exists as an Executive Order. The Thirteenth Amendment is in order and it is as it ought to be since our Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal” and endowed by “their Creator” with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Even without our Declaration of Independence, men can reason these truths from the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would be done unto.”
Does anyone ever notice how much “white blood” was shed to before and after this amendment. The US was formed to create a “more perfect union” not necessarily be a “perfect union”. Slavery was wrong then and is still now but living in the present is all we can do. Move on people. Reparations are for those who hold a grudge on something they know little about.
“Reparations are for those who hold a grudge on something they know little about.” The Japanese Internment during WWII was protective custody after Pearl Harbor.
If Lincoln,a great political figure and orator, had called for 75, 000 troops to free the slaves instead of “put down the rebellion “, he would have been fortunate to have 10,000 show up.
Think of the brevity of that Amendment. Compare that with the trillions of characters that get spilled every day by government bureaucrats, lawyers, and the media. Less is more. Of course, when we live in a culture where boys can be girls and play in girls Sports, more words are needed to confuse everybody. It brings to mind the old cliche, if you can’t Dazzle them with Brilliance baffle them with ******
The 13th Amendment is the first time the word slavery is mention by name in the Constitution. The framers, I think most especially the framers who were slaveholders, were embarrassed by it–I think they hoped it would eventually die on it own. They had good reason–before the revolution, slavery was legal in all the colonies, but by the time the Constitution was approved, more than half of the 13 states had outlawed it, or were on they way to outlawing it. Free black men could vote in 4 or 5 of the new states (back when states determined voting qualifications). It took the wild profits generated by the cotton gin and JC Calhoun to turn slavery from a “necessary evil” to a “positive good”.