Thirteenth Amendment

Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865.

Text[edit]

AMENDMENT XIII

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.

Background[edit]

In 1863 President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Nonetheless, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation. Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.

The 13th amendment was passed at the end of the American Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union and should have easily passed the Congress. Although the Senate passed it in April 1864, the House did not. At that point, Lincoln took an active role to ensure passage through congress. He insisted that passage of the 13th amendment be added to the Republican Party platform for the upcoming Presidential elections. His efforts met with success when the House passed the bill in January 1865 with a vote of 119–56.

With the adoption of the 13th amendment, the United States found a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery. The 13th amendment, along with the 14th and 15th, is one of the trio of Civil War amendments that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans.

Ratification[edit]

The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified on December 6, 1865, 309 days after Congress had proposed it.^[1] Many Southern states ratified it only because Congress had made ratification an official condition of their readmission to the Union after the Civil War.

New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky ratified this amendment after initially rejecting it. Kentucky did not ratify this amendment until 1976, in a symbolic gesture.

Effects[edit]

The only immediate effect was to abolish slavery in the few states where it had not already been abolished. It has subsequently been raised several times in the Supreme Court:

• In the Selective Draft Law cases, and again in Arver v. United States, the defendants unsuccessfully argued that the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited military conscription.
• In Butler v. Perry, Butler unsuccessfully argued that the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited the government from forcing him to maintain public roads.
• In Bailey v. Alabama, the Supreme Court ruled that the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited laws that indirectly, through presumptions of evidence, compel labor.
• In United States v. Kozminski, the Supreme Court prohibited psychological coercion to compel labor.

Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

Bill of Rights:
1 - Freedom of speech, press, religion, etc.
2 - Right to bear arms
3 - Quartering of soldiers
4 - Warrants
5 - Due process
6 - Right to a speedy trial
7 - Right by trial of a jury
8 - No cruel or unusual punishments
9 - Unenumerated rights
10 - Power to the people and states

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11 - Immunity of states to foreign suits
12 - Revision of presidential election procedures
13 - Abolition of slavery
14 - Citizenship
15 - Racial suffrage
16 - Federal income tax
17 - Direct election of the United States Senate
18 - Prohibition of alcohol
19 - Women's suffrage
20 - Terms of the presidency
21 - Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment
22 - Limits the president to two terms
23 - District of Columbia Voting for President
24 - Prohibition of poll taxes
25 - Presidential disabilities
26 - Voting age lowered to 18
27 - Variance of congressional compensation

References[edit]

1. ↑ http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html#Am13