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拍品專文
"Article XIII. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary 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."
Official copy of the Thirteenth Amendment. Accomplished and signed by members of Congress to commemorate their historic vote to abolish slavery.
The Thirteenth Amendment was the first of the Reconstruction-era amendments to the Constitution and the first expansion of U.S. legal freedom since the passage of the Bill of Rights by Congress in 1789.
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief had issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure, recognizing that it was not within the power of his office to unilaterally end slavery throughout the nation. That definitive act required a Constitutional amendment. Resolutions calling for such an amendment were drafted in the Republican-controlled Senate as early as April 1864; the final version, largely the work of Connecticut Senator Lyman Trumbull, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, adopted wording strikingly similar to that drafted by Jefferson in 1787 for the Northwest Ordinance, prohibiting slavery in the new territories of the northwest. The Senate passed the resolution quickly, on a vote of 38 to 6, but in the House of Representatives, with tenacious opposition from Democrats, it was defeated in balloting on June 15, 1864. So matters rested until the critical November elections. Then, in the wake of important Union victories on the battlefields and Lincoln’s re-election, the electorate’s endorsement of abolition was clear. Even though the composition of Congress was the same as it had been when the resolution was voted down in June, the bill was resubmitted to the lame duck Congress on 31 January 1865. However, the opposition again maneuvered to defeat it.
When informed that the Amendment was still two votes short of passage, Lincoln is reported to have told a delegation of Republicans: "I am the President of the United States, clothed with great power. The abolition of slavery by Constitutional provision settles the fate, for all coming time, not only of the millions now in bondage, but of unborn millions to come—a measure of such importance that those two votes must be procured. I leave it to you how it shall be done..." With a Union victory seemingly assured and with the help of powerful behind-the-scenes advocacy from the Lincoln White House, the resolution finally passed on a vote of 119 to 56. When Colfax read aloud the vote tally, the House erupted in spontaneous cheers and shouts of joy.
This document stands as a witness to the continued jubilation in Congress following the House’s decisive vote on 31 January 1865; engrossed copies such as this were produced in the days which immediately followed, For about a week, President Abraham Lincoln added his signature to several of them; however, by February 7 he deemed it inappropriate, a recognition that the document was officially the work of Congress.
Created to honor a defining turning point in the nation’s history—the painfully long‑awaited realization of America’s promise of human freedom—this document is no less momentous today, 160 years after its passage.
Official copy of the Thirteenth Amendment. Accomplished and signed by members of Congress to commemorate their historic vote to abolish slavery.
The Thirteenth Amendment was the first of the Reconstruction-era amendments to the Constitution and the first expansion of U.S. legal freedom since the passage of the Bill of Rights by Congress in 1789.
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief had issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure, recognizing that it was not within the power of his office to unilaterally end slavery throughout the nation. That definitive act required a Constitutional amendment. Resolutions calling for such an amendment were drafted in the Republican-controlled Senate as early as April 1864; the final version, largely the work of Connecticut Senator Lyman Trumbull, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, adopted wording strikingly similar to that drafted by Jefferson in 1787 for the Northwest Ordinance, prohibiting slavery in the new territories of the northwest. The Senate passed the resolution quickly, on a vote of 38 to 6, but in the House of Representatives, with tenacious opposition from Democrats, it was defeated in balloting on June 15, 1864. So matters rested until the critical November elections. Then, in the wake of important Union victories on the battlefields and Lincoln’s re-election, the electorate’s endorsement of abolition was clear. Even though the composition of Congress was the same as it had been when the resolution was voted down in June, the bill was resubmitted to the lame duck Congress on 31 January 1865. However, the opposition again maneuvered to defeat it.
When informed that the Amendment was still two votes short of passage, Lincoln is reported to have told a delegation of Republicans: "I am the President of the United States, clothed with great power. The abolition of slavery by Constitutional provision settles the fate, for all coming time, not only of the millions now in bondage, but of unborn millions to come—a measure of such importance that those two votes must be procured. I leave it to you how it shall be done..." With a Union victory seemingly assured and with the help of powerful behind-the-scenes advocacy from the Lincoln White House, the resolution finally passed on a vote of 119 to 56. When Colfax read aloud the vote tally, the House erupted in spontaneous cheers and shouts of joy.
This document stands as a witness to the continued jubilation in Congress following the House’s decisive vote on 31 January 1865; engrossed copies such as this were produced in the days which immediately followed, For about a week, President Abraham Lincoln added his signature to several of them; however, by February 7 he deemed it inappropriate, a recognition that the document was officially the work of Congress.
Created to honor a defining turning point in the nation’s history—the painfully long‑awaited realization of America’s promise of human freedom—this document is no less momentous today, 160 years after its passage.