Debate over a constitutional amendment permanently abolishing slavery had taken place in the U.S. House of Representatives throughout January. The Senate had already passed the amendment the previous year, so only the House was needed for approval. The Lincoln administration, led by Secretary of State William H. Seward, lobbied various Democrats thought to be willing to support the amendment. These congressmen were promised prized government jobs and favors in exchange for their votes.
Montgomery Blair, Lincoln’s former postmaster general, tried to drum up Democrat support by asserting that emancipating the slaves would not lead to “Negro equality.” He urged Democratic leader Samuel Barlow to rally his party behind the amendment because, “If the northern Democracy could now be rallied to the support of the President and ignore the slavery question, we can soon bring back the South.”
Congressmen from the loyal slave states were also targeted. Lincoln wrote James S. Rollins of Missouri, “This is my chief hope and main reliance to bring the war to a speedy close… The passage of this amendment will clinch the whole subject; it will bring the war, I have no doubt, rapidly to a close.” In reality the war was winding down with or without the amendment, but support from the border states would show a united northern front against the Confederacy.
The administration’s efforts seemed to be paying off, but then rumors of peace talks threatened to kill the amendment. Lincoln had dispatched Seward to Fort Monroe a few hours before the vote was scheduled to begin, confident that House Republicans had enough votes to get the necessary two-thirds majority. But Democrats who had voiced support for the measure now hesitated. They feared that a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery could offend the Confederate envoys and break up the talks, and the war would go on indefinitely.
Congressman James M. Ashley, the amendment’s sponsor, wrote a frantic note to Lincoln as voting time neared: “The report is in circulation in the House that peace Commissioners are on their way or are in the city, and is being used against us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please authorize me to contradict it, if not true.” Lincoln responded, “So far as I know, there are no peace commissioners in the city, or likely to be in it.” Lincoln was correct in that no commissioners were in Washington, but he conveniently failed to acknowledge that they were within Federal lines.
On the afternoon of January 31, debate ended and House Speaker Schuyler Colfax began the voting process by asking, “Shall the Joint Resolution pass?” The Republicans unanimously voted “yes.” Of the 80 Democrats, 16 voted “yes” (including 14 who would not be in the next Congress and therefore did not risk their reelection chances), and eight abstained. The final vote was 119 in favor and 56 opposed, which was the two-thirds majority needed for passage. The amendment passed by just five votes.
The speaker announced, “The constitutional majority of two-thirds having voted in the affirmative, the joint resolution is passed.” The Congressional Globe reported that upon this announcement, “The members of the Republican side of the House instantly sprang to their feet, and, regardless of parliamentary rules, applauded with cheers and clapping of hands. The example was followed by male spectators in the galleries, who waved their hats and cheered long and loud, while the ladies… rose in their seats and waved their handkerchiefs…”
A correspondent reported a loud explosion of cheering, “the like of which probably no Congress of the United States had ever heard before.” Another report stated that there was “an uncontrollable outburst of enthusiasm.” A Republican congressman wrote, “Members joined in the shouting and kept it up for some minutes. Some embraced one another, others wept like children. I have felt, ever since the vote, as if I were in a new country.”
Those celebrating in the House gallery included several black men and women who had not been allowed in the House chamber until last year. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered a 100-gun salute fired to commemorate the amendment’s passage, and the House adjourned for the rest of the day “in honor of this immortal and sublime event.”
Passage of this Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made the original Thirteenth Amendment virtually forgotten. Having passed just four short years before, the original would have prohibited the Federal government from interfering with slavery where it already existed. This failed ratification because the southern states had already seceded. Ironically, the southern secession prompted northern politicians to place even greater restrictions on slavery until finally abolishing it altogether. This became the first constitutional amendment to place restrictions on individuals rather than the government.
This new amendment satisfied Lincoln, who feared that his Emancipation Proclamation would be overturned by the courts after the war because it was admittedly just a wartime measure with no real basis in law. State legislatures soon began debating and voting on the amendment’s ratification, which would make Lincoln’s proclamation permanent.
Bibliography
- Angle, Paul M., A Pictorial History of the Civil War Years. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
- Catton, Bruce and Long, E.B. (ed.), Never Call Retreat: Centennial History of the Civil War Book 3. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. (Kindle Edition), 1965.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Goodwin, Doris Kearns, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- McGinty, Brian (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- McPherson, James M., War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865. Littlefield History of the Civil War Era, The University of North Carolina Press (Kindle Edition), 2012.
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