Republic Rescued with 13th Constitutional Amendment
71The Republican Party, founded in 1855 by anti-slavery activists, sought to move America back to the original intent of its Founders and the U.S. Constitution. Their slogan was "free labor, free land, free men." They held a strong belief in independent businessmen, and they opposed slave labor or any system where the rich could buy up good farm land and work it with slaves.
Starting about 1820 and up to 1855, Congressional Democrats had reversed many of the early, original laws; for example,
- George Washington’s initiation of no slavery in federal territories, and
- the 1808 law enacted under Thomas Jefferson to halt further slave trade.
13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
Democrat's different direction brought to a halt
These Democrats disagreed with the laws as laid out by the Founders and it is this different direction that the new Republican Party sought to turn around. This new party said we are going to return to the principles of the republic, calling themselves Republicans.
They came to power in 1860 and brought the Democrat's different direction to a halt, with Abraham Lincoln elected to the presidency and Republicans in control of Congress and the northern states. Their platform of a return to the former principles included the move to legislate civil rights laws.
In the next election of 1864, the Civil War was still in progress and the Republicans had been finding civil rights legislation took a lot of time. For this election they decided part of the platform would be a constitutional amendment to just stop slavery outright. Upon reelection the Republicans then promptly introduced the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery.
Lincoln's symbolic signature
Passage of the 13th Amendment
In January-February of 1865—this is still during the Civil War before it ended—the U.S. House and the Senate voted to abolish slavery. At that time there were 200 members in the House, made up of the Republicans and northern Democrats (the southerners not yet restored to the republic.) The members of Congress who voted for the Amendment numbered 137. This included, along with all the Republicans, 19 of the 82 northern Democrats. Also, though presidents do not sign constitutional amendments, President Lincoln signed this one symbolically to simply make clear that he, too, fully supported it.
The congressional chambers were packed from wall to wall with expectant observers of this historic vote. When finally on January 31, 1865, the votes were counted and it was announced that the amendment had passed, a roar erupted from the thousands in the chamber! Hats were thrown and exuberant cheers went out! Congress had voted to end slavery.
13th Amendment
How did they choose to celebrate such a profound event? House members asked that a sermon be preached to commemorate the event and asked Rev. Henry Highland Garnet. On February 12, 1865, he became the first black American to speak in the halls of Congress.
Ratification by the states
Once Congress passed the amendment it went to the states for ratification. Less than a year later, on December 18, 1865, it was declared to have been ratified by the required number of legislatures—twenty-seven of the then thirty-six states. The other nine of the those thirty-six states subsequently ratified the Amendment; the last one Mississippi on March 16, 1995. (Yes, almost 130 years later.)
Do support the passage of the 13th Amendment?
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I'm glad to hear you like history, too, SubRon. :) Yes, I see there were a lot of great people in our history. I'm surprised to learn, too, that the country started going in a wayward direction in the early 1800s--just 30-40 years after the Founders. Humans sure do go astray! It was the return to the Judeo-Christian values and principles that turned things around again back in the right direction. Maybe there is hope, yet, today?
Form the 1776 to 1865, it took 89 years to abolish slavery. Here it is, nearly one-hundred and fifty years later, and sometimes it seems that battle still goes on.
I enjoyed reading your history lesson, Ms Dee. I can only hope that those voting do support the passage of the 13th Amendment! Ha ha ha! Anyway, in my opinion, this country still suffers from the profound effects of slavery because even though this awful institution is banned, some peoples' hearts and minds haven't changed when it come to prejudicy and racism - which are among the many reasons why slavery came into being.
Sometimes I wonder, while God watches all this hypocrisy concerning "race relations," if He questions (even in His infinite wisdom), how and if we could get along in a heaven, if we couldn't get it right while being tested and prepared on earth.
Thanks for sharing and voted up, up and away!
First of all, Dexter, do you follow Feenix? He writes a lot about racism, etc. You would enjoy reading his hubs. Ms. Dee, I admire you for writing topics of history. I wrote a hub about Susan B. Anthony and it requires much patience! Thank you for the interesting article. (and isn't it terrible that there were so many soldiers and innocent people killed during the Civil War?)
Dexter, thank you so much for your read and thoughts! It is such a human tendency to want to lord over others and it seems racism becomes an excuse for something that is so wrong. It is the opposite, isn't it, of what is right before God. I amazed at how the freed slaves then made such tremendous strides in our nation in civil rights directly after the Civil War. They were such godly men!
Susie, like Dexter, I am so pleased to have your read and comment. Yes, the Civil War was sooo costly in lives and suffering in order to restore freedoms and right the direction of the nation, for a time. Freedom is hard to come by, isn't it!
Hi Ms Dee
Great hub! I look forward to my next history lesson.
Yes, I support the passage of the 13th amendment.
Why did it take Mississippi so long to ratify the amendment?
Hi, Sueswan! Thanks for learning with me :) I wondered too why MS took so long. The Wikipedia says that in 1982, while researching the proposed—but not ratified—Equal Rights Amendment of a decade earlier for a paper in a government class that he was taking at the University of Texas at Austin, student Gregory Watson found documents that evidenced another unratified constitutional amendment. He's started the momentum behind a number of instances where certain states had unratified amendments. Later, in 1994, Watson verified that the MS Legislature had never ratified the 13th Amendment. The only official pronouncement of MS lawmakers was the 1865 resolution rejecting it. So, in 1994, Watson sent letters to all African-American members of the MS state Senate and House informing them of the state's official status on the 13th Amendment and he enclosed a draft resolution with the letter for the Legislature to ceremonially post-ratify it. In March 1995 it was officially adopted, making MS the final state to approve the 13th Amendment, 130 years later.
Mississippi banned slavery in its own state constitution in 1868. Even had they never done this, there would have been no reason for them to return to the issue of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as it was already law. As Ms. Dee said, this was purely ceremonial. It was also probably a political stunt as elections were around the corner.
Michael, this added information about the MS constitution is good to see and makes more sense that this issue was not left hanging for over a century.
SubRon7 Level 7 Commenter 10 months ago
Thanks, Ms Dee, I like reading history, but don't take the time to go deep, as you do. I sometimes wonder, where on earth did all those great men come from, and the women behind them....