The Thirteenth Amendment

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 The Thirteenth Amendment The legal standing of slaves and the system of slavery remained unsettled in spite of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. It would take an additional two and a half years for word of the Proclamation to spread throughout the whole nation. The Republican Party included the elimination of slavery as a high objective in its 1864 party platform in order to address the lingering doubts. The platform stated unequivocally that the goal of ending slavery was to abolish it, saying that "as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength of this Rebellion, and as it must be, always and everywhere, hostile to the principles of Republican Government, justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic; and that, while we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a deathblow at this gigantic evil, we are furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of Slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States." The platform made the goal of ending slavery clear. In 1864 and 1865, the president and the Radical Republicans followed through on their electoral pledge. The Senate approved a proposed constitutional change in April 1864, and the House of Representatives followed suit in January 1865. After that, the amendment headed for the states, where it quickly garnered the required support—including from the South. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally adopted and incorporated to the Constitution in December of 1865. The first amendment to the Constitution since 1804, it permanently outlawed slavery, upending a centuries-old custom. The Thirteenth Amendment was never finally ratified, which President Lincoln never witnessed. John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, when the president was at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., seeing the play Our American Cousin. Next day, the president passed away. Booth's action was a part of a broader plot to assassinate the leaders of the Union government and continue the Confederate struggle, since he had fiercely backed the Confederacy and White supremacy. The night of the assassination, Secretary of State William Seward was stabbed by one of Booth's companions. At the last minute, another partner decided against carrying out the intended killing of Vice President Andrew Johnson. On April 26, 1865, in a Maryland barn, Booth was shot and murdered by Union forces, notwithstanding his first escape from custody. Four of the eight other defendants were executed after a military trial found them guilty of conspiratorial activities. After Lincoln's death, frenzy swept the North and he became an instant martyr. Many in the North believed that the killing pointed to a larger conspiracy than what turned out to be true, one that was orchestrated by the unapologetic leaders of the vanquished Confederacy. In the next months, militant Republicans will make constant use of and exploit this anxiety. Juneteenth, the most well-known yearly commemoration of the abolition of slavery, was born on June 19, 1865. There was both muted and overt dissent to the directive. There were slaveholders who decided not to tell their slaves about the news. Furthermore, a great number of individuals were either slain or seized when they chose to use their freedom after learning of their release. Even though segregation and prejudice would persist and the road to complete freedom would remain tough, newly freed Texans started planning festivities as early as 1866, which they called Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day. In 1867, Austin had its inaugural Juneteenth celebration.