Looking Back At January 31
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How The Thirteenth Amendment To Abolish Slavery Got Passed In Congress
After Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election in 1860, southern states began to secede from the Union in objection to Lincoln’s stance on the abolition of slavery. War broke out over the issue of slavery in the United States, consuming nearly all of Lincoln’s time and focus in his four years of being president. Abolishing slavery was a goal of the Republican party and of Lincoln. However, winning the war and keeping the union together were immediate priorities. When the amendment to abolish slavery was proposed, Lincoln was in favor of it, but in early 1864 he did not outwardly endorse the measure, fearing that he would lose the election if he did so. By the second half of 1864, encouraged by some military victories, Lincoln made abolition a centerpiece in his campaign to be re-elected. This article provides a timeline of the journey of the 13th amendment up to the day it was passed in Congress.
Timeline of events leading up to Congress passing the Thirteenth Amendment.
January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion. This set in motion an initiative to end slavery in the U.S.
On January 11, 1864, Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri submitted a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, became involved in merging different proposals for an amendment.
On February 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee presented the Senate with an amendment proposal based on drafts of Representative James Mitchell Ashley of Ohio, Representative James F. Wilson of Iowa, and Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri. The committee’s version of the amendment stipulated, “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
On April 8, 1864, the Senate passed the amendment.
On June 15, 1864 the House of Representatives failed to pass the amendment. The abolition of slavery continued to be a wedge issue in the 1864 elections. Abolitionists, of course, advocated for the amendment, arguing that slavery was uncivilized, and abolition was a necessary step in national progress. Opponents, mostly from southern states, argued that abolition of slavery might be unconstitutional, and dangerous, as it may lead to full citizenship for non-whites.
On November 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln won re-election after making an amendment to abolish slavery a key part of his platform. He had resisted endorsing the amendment openly, believing that to do so would ruin his chances at re-election. Nevertheless, with his decisive defeat of General George B. McClellan encouraged Lincoln to put more energy into passing the 13th amendment.
On December 6, 1864 President Lincoln delivered his State Of The Union address in which he saw passage of the 13th amendment as imminent. He believed it was only a question of time before the amendment would go out to the states for ratification, and he urged Congress to make that happen as soon as possible. From this point forward Lincoln headed a campaign to get the votes needed to pass the amendment in the House of Representatives. He told his allies, specifically Secretary of State William H. Seward, to get the votes by whatever means necessary.
What Lincoln knew or didn’t know about the tactics his allies used to get Democrats to switch sides is, according to historians, unclear. Seward had a large fund for bribing representatives to vote for the amendment. Secretary of State Seward as well as other representatives and senators, lobbied hard, with promises of cabinet positions, bribes of money, and possibly even threats to a colleague’s well-being, for Democrats to side with Republicans on this amendment.
In mid-January, 1865, the issue was due to come to a vote in the House. The Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax, felt the vote would come up short by a handful of votes, so the vote was postponed. President Lincoln pushed harder, as though time were running out. He stepped up his involvement, speaking with more representatives and making emotional appeals, until the vote was called for the last day of January.
On January 31, 1865, Amendment 13 was put up for a vote in the House of Representatives. There was no certainty which way the vote would go. Eight Democrats abstained from voting, bringing down the number needed to pass the amendment. Though the Confederacy was clearly failing, the war was not yet over, and with the very issue that had ignited the war now being brought to a vote in Congress, some of the Democratic congressmen were under enormous pressure. Some made very emotional appeals as they cast their votes. In the end the Thirteenth Amendment passed with only two votes more than needed to satisfy the two-thirds requirement.
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