The Thirteenth Amendment.— It is one of the singular turns of the history of anti-slavery agitation that although New England had been so long identified with the abolition movement, it should fall to the lot of a man from a West ern slave State to formulate and introduce the amendment which was to write into the Con stitution the fulfilment of the highest hopes of Garrison and Phillips. It was Mr. Hender son of Missouri, who on 11 Jan. 1864 introduced in the Senate the joint resolution which be came the 13th Amendment. This resolution, somewhat amended by the Judiciary Committee, passed the Senate on 8 April by a vote of 38 to 6. Abolition sentiment had not gained ground rapidly in Congress. That body had put itself on record many times as carrying on the war for the sole purpose of preserving the Union. As late as 22 and 25 July 1861, after the battle of Bull Run, the Crittenden resolutions de clared that the war was not waged "for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions" of the Southern States. These resolutions had been agreed to in the House with but two negative votes and in the Senate but five were recorded against them. There were also many members who realized that slavery was doomed, but were unwilling formally to put themselves on record as co-operating in its destruction. It was not surprising then that the Henderson resolution was rejected when it came up in the House on 15 June. But 95 votes were cast in its favor. The election of 1864 determined beyond all question that the country endorsed Mr. Lincoln's administration. This meant more than mere approval of his course in conducting the war. The Emancipation Proclamation and an amend ment to give it effect upon the restoration of peace were just as truly issues of that election as was any other feature of the administration. From the first the President had been a cham pion of the Henderson resolution and he was quick to take advantage of the result of the election in urging upon the House the necessity of its passage. This he did in his annual message of 6 Dec. 1864. He called the attention of the House to the result of the recent con test, and told them that it meant the passage of the measure by the next Congress, if it failed in this. He declared the election to he "the voice of the people now, for the first time heard upon the question" at issue. We need not consider which most influenced their action, Mr. Lin coln's message or the determination to accept an accomplished fact. On 31 Jan. 1865, by a vote of 121 to 24, the House finally passed the resolution as it came from the Senate: Sec tion 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servi tude, 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. Con gress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. On 18 Dec. 1865, the 13th Amendment was declared a part of the Constitution.
The Fourteenth Amendment.— On the first day of the memorable 39th Congress, 4 Dec. 1865, Mr. Stevens submitted a resolution pro viding for a joint committee of 15 to inquire into the affairs of "the so-called Confederate States." The resolution created what became
known as the Reconstruction Committee. To this committee was referred every bill, resolu tion or petition bearing upon any phase of the relations between the Southern States and the general government, or involving consideration of the future status of the negro. The only re sult of their labors in which we are interested was submitted to both Houses on 30 April 1866, as their plan for the reconstruction of the Southern States. This consisted of three features, embraced in a joint resolution, propos ing a constitutional amendment and two bills. The three combined did not differ greatly from the 14th Amendment as finally adopted. The first section of the joint resolution did not con tain a definition of national citizenship. In other respects it was the same as that adopted. Its second section, reducing representation for suffrage abridgment, was adopted substantially as reported. Section 3 deprived of the right to vote for electors or representatives until 4 July 1870, all those in any way identified with the "late insurrection?' One of the bills reported as part of this plan provided for rendering in eligible to office certain proscribed classes of men in the Southern States. This bill formed the basis of the third section of the amend ment as adopted, in lieu of the one reported by the committee. The fourth section was similar to the fourth section of the amendment, except that it did not contain the provision as to the validity of the public debt. The first of the bills reported provided that when the amendment proposed therein should have become part of the Constitution, and been ratified by "any State lately in insurrection," the senators and repre sentatives from such State "might" ["may"] he admitted into Congress as such" This bill did not pass either House, nor did Congress com mit itself in any way to the policy suggested by it,— that of admitting the Southern States upon their ratification of the proposed amendment. The House passed this joint resolution just as it came from the committee, the Senate making the amendments outlined above. These modifi cations brought the resolution to the shape in which it now stands as the 14th Amendment. The Senate passed it 8 June 1866 by a vote of 33 to 11. On 13 June the House agreed to the Senate amendments by a vote of 138 to 36. A study in detail of the ratification of this amend ment would take us further afield than we can go, for here the history of the amendments and that of Reconstruction so blend as to become difficult of separate treatment. Thus would be opened up the whole question of the rejection of the amendment by the Southern States, save Tennessee, and of the effect of such rejection upon the subsequent action of Congress toward those States in the matter of negro suffrage and the last amendment. In the process of Reconstruction ratification became, in specific terms, a condition precedent to the readmission of the Southern States, and was declared ac complished in Seward's proclamations of 20 and 28 July 1868. .