Abraham Lincoln

16 Pages 4063 Words

. One is his argument for slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation. The Houses of Representatives, on January 31, 1865, passed the 13th Amendment with a vote of 119 to 56 — just two votes more than the required two-thirds majority. The American Constitution, though never mentioning slavery by names, refers to slaves only as "person [s] held to service or labor"; the new amendment, in direct contrast, directly named the institution by name:

"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 the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The adoption of the amendment also settled all questions in regard to the legality of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Before the amendment however could actually become effective, twenty-seven out of thirty-six states needed to ratify it. Still, even if all twenty-five northern free states moved to ratify the amendment, the votes of two more Confederate states would be needed for its passage to
The Constitution. Of course, those votes would come from the reconstructed states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee or North Carolina. Recognizing the new free state governments Lincoln had
helped to build up in those states would be necessary to remove slavery. The present 13th Amendment was finally several months after the end of the civil war. Until then, the freedom of the slaves rested upon Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
While the Northern states one by one moved to ratify the amendment, Secretary Seward and President Lincoln hesitantly agreed to meet with Southern delegates to deliberate about any peace negotiations. Back in August1864, Lincoln insisted that the eradication of slavery and the unity of the country were preconditions for peace. Now, in February 1865, ...