whom did not belong to the State) for the same office, a choice was fairly given to all other States to select between them; thus excluding the absolute predominance of any local interest or local partiality."'27

27 Story on Constitution, vol. 2, p. 315.

1

CHAPTER LIX.

THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.

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.

The ratification of this amendment was certified by William H. Seward, as Secretary of State, December 18, 1865.

Sixty-one years intervened after the ratification of the twelfth amendment before another was passed by Congress and ratified by the requisite number of States. The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment was one of the results of the great Civil War, and followed the proclamation of President Lincoln by which he emancipated the slaves. On the 14th of December, 1863, James M. Ashley, a representative in Congress from Ohio, introduced in the House of Representatives a bill "to provide for the submission to the several States, of a proposition to amend the National Constitution prohibiting slavery, or involuntary servitude, in all of the States and Territories now owned or which may be hereafter acquired by the United States. 991

On the same day Mr. Wilson, a member of the House from Iowa, offered a joint resolution providing that the following sections be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

"Section 1. Slavery, being incompatible with a free government, is forever prohibited in the United States; and involuntary servitude shall be permitted only as a punishment for crime.

1 Cong. Globe, Pt. 1, 1st Sess., 38th Cong. 19.

"Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce the foregoing section of this article by appropriate legislation."2

The bill of Mr. Ashley and the resolution of Mr. Wilson were referred to the judiciary committee. Before that committee reported on either, the question was taken up in the Senate, and in that body, on January 11, 1864, John B. Henderson, a Senator from Missouri, introduced a joint resolution providing:

"Slavery or involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, shall not exist in the United States."

This resolution was referred to the committee on judiciary, of which Senator Trumbull of Illinois was chairman. On the 8th of February following, Senator Sumner offered a joint resolution that the following article be proposed as an amendment to the Constitution: "Everywhere within the limits of the United States, and of each State or Territory thereof, all persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave." This resolution was also referred to the committee on judiciary. Two days later that committee reported that the following be submitted as Amendment XIII to the Constitution of the United States:

"Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

"Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.'

This amendment was based upon a provision in the Ordinance of 1787,5a and was a rejection of all former propositions of amendments. A long debate followed the report of the committee, in which opposition to the proposed amendment was made by Senator Sumner, who spoke

2 Cong. Globe, Pt. 1, 1st Sess., 38th Cong. 21.

3 Thorpe's Constitutional History, vol. 3, 129, n. 4 Cong. Globe, Pt. 1, 1st Sess., 38 Cong., 521. Cong. Globe, Pt. 2, 1st Sess., 38 Cong., 1313.

5a The 6th article of the Ordinance of 1787 contains this provision: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the States or Territories otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted."

against it. On the 8th of April, 1864, almost two months after the report of the committee, the amendment was passed in the Senate by a vote of 38 yeas to 6 nays. Having passed the Senate, the amendment went to the House, where, on the 15th of June following, by a vote of 93 yeas to 65 nays, 23 not voting, it failed to secure the requisite two-thirds majority and was consequently lost."

On the 15th of December, 1864, after the reconvening of Congress and after the Presidential election, Mr. Ashley gave notice to the House that on Friday, the 6th of January following, he would call up the motion to reconsider the vote by which the resolution for amending the Constitution was rejected-he having voted against the resolution for the purpose of moving its reconsideration. On the 6th of January, Mr. Ashley called up the motion "for discussion, intending to allow that discussion to run on until the House saw fit to order the main question to be put." Thereupon a debate upon the resolution began, which lasted until the 31st of January, when the House, by a vote of 112 yeas to 57 nays, decided to reconsider its vote on the proposed amendment as it passed the Senate.10 It then on the same day passed the amendment by a vote of 119 yeas to 56 nays.11

The first of the great amendments to the Constitution growing out of the Civil War had been passed by Congress. It marked the beginning of that eventful period in our national history which saw the adoption of the new amendments, and the great changes which were to occur in our organic law. It was a time of intense excitement in the House of Representatives when the voting on the amendment ended.

In describing it, the Globe says: "The announcement that the amendment had passed was received by the House and by the spectators with an outburst of enthusiasm. The members on the Republican side of the House instantly sprung to their feet, and, regardless of parliamentary

• Cong. Globe, Pt. 2, 1st Sess., 38 Cong., 1490. 7 Cong. Globe, Pt. 4, 1st Sess., 38 Cong., 2995. 8 Cong. Globe, Pt. 1, 2d Sess., 38 Cong., 53. Cong. Globe, Pt. 2, 2d Sess., 38 Cong., 138. 10 Cong. Globe, Pt. 2, 2d Sess., 38 Cong., 530. 11 Cong. Globe, Pt. 2, 2d Sess., 38 Cong., 531.

rules, applauded with cheers and clapping of hands. The example was followed by the male spectators in the galleries, which were crowded to excess, who waved their hats and cheered loud and long, while the ladies, hundreds of whom were present, rose in their seats and waved their handkerchiefs, participating in and adding to the general excitement and intense interest of the scene. This lasted for several minutes.''12

Then Mr. Ingersoll said: "Mr. Speaker, in honor of this immortal and sublime event I move that the House do now adjourn."

On the 18th of December, 1865, the Secretary of State issued his proclamation announcing the ratification of the amendment by twenty-seven States.13

The amendment was adopted for the purpose of abolishing slavery in every form in the United States, and in every place under their control; it did not purport to do more than this, and this was accomplished, not only in the United States proper, but among the Indians of Alaska14 and among those under the direct supervision of the Government.15

Effect of the Amendment.-In United States v. Rhodes (pp. 37, 38) Mr. Justice Swayne said1 of this amendment: "It trenches directly upon the power of the States and of the people of the States. It is the first and only instance of a change of this character in the organic law. It destroyed the most important relation between capital and labor in all the States where slavery existed. It affected deeply the fortunes of a large portion of their people. It struck out of existence millions of property. The measure was the consequence of a strife of opinions, and a conflict of interests, real or imaginary, as old as the Constitution itself. These elements of discord grew in intensity. Their violence was increased by the throes and convulsions of a civil war. The impetuous vortex finally swallowed up the evil, and with it forever the power to restore it. Those who insisted upon the adop

12 Cong. Globe, Pt. 1, 2d Sess., 38th Cong., 531.

13 13 Statutes at Large, 774.

14 In re Sah Quah, 31 Fed. Rep., 327, 330.

15 United States v. Choctaw Nation et al., 38 Ct. Claims, 558, 566. 18 1 Abbott's United States Report, 28, 37, 38.