Slavery was thus practically at an end. Nevertheless under the then accepted theory of the Constitution, both Congress and the States might legally re-establish it. To prevent that contingency and to wipe out the last vestige of the system, the 13th Amendment was intro duced into Congress, received the necessary two thirds vote (22 Feb. 1865) and 18 Dec. 1865 it was announced that the necessary three-fourths of the States had ratified it, and that to the text of the Constitution had been added the significant words, "Neither slavery nor in voluntary 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?' As Lincoln said a few days before his death, "We have finished the job?" Beginning in 1775 with a United States in which slavery was the normal condition of every community and every square mile of vacant territory, the strug gle of 90 years ended with a condition in which by the firmest of constitutional enactments the normal status was everywhere that of freedom. The amendment even reached out into the future, and covers all annexations made or that can ever be made; so that chattel slavery of human beings, no matter what their color, is now absolutely unknown to the law of the United States or of any State, Territory or de pendency.
Bibhography.—Adams, A. D., 'Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery' (1908) ; Brawley, 'A Short History of the American Negro' (New York 1913); Charming, Hart and Turner, 'Guide to American History> (1913) ; Collin, W. H., 'Domestic Slave Trade> (1904); Cut ler, J. E., 'Lynch Law> (1905) ; Douglass, F., 'Life and Times of Frederick Douglass' (Auto biography 1881); Dubois, W. E. B., 'Suppres sion of the African Slave Trade' (1896) ; id., 'Select Bibliography of the American Negro' (1901); .George, J. Z., 'Political History of Slavery in the United States' (New York 1915); Griffin, A. P. C., 'Select List of Refer ences on the Negro Question> (1903); Hart, A. B., 'Slavery and Abolition' (1906) ; Locke, M. E., 'Anti-Slavery in America (1901) ; Mc Dougall, M. G. 'Fugitive Slaves' (1908); Smith, T. C., and Slavery' (1906); Woodson, 'The Education of the Negro prior to 1861> (New York 1915). Consult also the histories of von Hoist, McMaster, Rhodes and Schouler; and biographies of pro-slavery and anti-slavery people.