Date Created:
Year Created: 1865
Collection this Document is Affiliated with:
Description: This is a copy of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in the United States, signed by members of the House and Senate. The amendment had passed the Senate in April of 1864, and the House by the necessary two thirds vote, on January 31, 1865. Though he was not required to do so, Lincoln also signed the joint resolution. The amendment then required ratification by three fourths of the states, with Illinois, to Lincoln's gratification, the first to do so.
Categories of Documents:
Congress, Joint Resolution, February 1, 1865
Thirty-Eighth Congress of the United States.
A Resolution; Submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said Constitution, namely;
ARTICLE 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.
Schuyler Colfax Speaker of the House of Representatives
H. Hamlin Vice President of the United States
and President of the Senate
Approved, February 1. 1865.
[Signed by Lincoln:]
Abraham Lincoln
Attest: J. W. Forney
Secretary of the Senate
Edwd McPherson
Clerk of the House of Representatives
In the Senate, April 8, 1864.
[Followed by 58 Signatures]
In the House of Representatives, January 31, 1865
[Followed by 120 Signatures]
Citation: Lincoln, Abraham. Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 3. General Correspondence. 1837 to 1897: Congress, Wednesday,Joint Resolution Submitting 13th Amendment to the States; signed by Abraham Lincoln and Congress. February 1, 1865. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mal4361100/>.