6
December 1865 A.D. 13th Amendment to U.S. Constitution
Ratified—Ending Slavery; Republican
Victories in 1864 Guaranteed Passage
On
this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, officially
ending the institution of slavery, is ratified. "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." With these words, the single greatest
change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the Constitution.
The
ratification came eight months after the end of the war, but it represented the
culmination of the struggle against slavery. When the war began, some in
the North were against fighting what they saw as a crusade to end slavery.
Although many northern Democrats and conservative Republicans were opposed to
slavery's expansion, they were ambivalent about outlawing the institution
entirely. The war's escalation after the First Battle of Bull Run,
Virginia, in July 1861 caused many to rethink the role that slavery played
in creating the conflict. By 1862, Lincoln realized that it was folly to wage
such a bloody war without plans to eliminate slavery. In September 1862,
following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland, Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in territory still
in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would be declared forever free. The move was
largely symbolic, as it only freed slaves in areas outside of Union control,
but it changed the conlfict from a war for the reunification of the states to a
war whose objectives included the destruction of slavery.
Lincoln
believed that a constitutional amendment was necessary to ensure the end of
slavery. In 1864, Congress debated several proposals. Some insisted on
including provisions to prevent discrimination against blacks, but the Senate
Judiciary Committee provided the eventual language. It borrowed from the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787, when slavery was banned from the area north of the
Ohio River. The Senate passed the amendment in April 1864.
A
Republican victory in the 1864 presidential election would guarantee the
success of the amendment. The Republican platform called for the "utter
and complete destruction" of slavery, while the Democrats favored
restoration of states' rights, which would include at least the possibility for
the states to maintain slavery. Lincoln's overwhelming victory set in motion
the events leading to ratification of the amendment. The House passed the
measure in January 1865 and it was sent to the states for ratification. When
Georgia ratified it on December 6, 1865, the institution of slavery officially
ceased to exist in the United States.
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