[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 13, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1767-E1768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  POST-RATIFICATION BY MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION'S 
                   13TH AMENDMENT--ABOLISHING SLAVERY

                                 ______


                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 13, 1995
  Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call to the attention of my 
colleagues and to the attention of the American people, a very historic 
action taken earlier this year by the Legislature of my State of 
Mississippi.
  A century and three decades ago, in 1865, the 38th Congress proposed 
an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to end the inhumane practice of 
slavery--uniformly, throughout the entire Nation. Within a matter of 
months, the proposal had received the required approval of the 
legislatures of three-fourths of the States then in the Union and it 
resultantly became the Constitution's 13th amendment.
  It also was during that pivotal year of 1865, that both houses of the 
Mississippi Legislature adopted a resolution rejecting, denouncing, and 
condemning the constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Thus, the 
13th amendment 

[[Page E 1768]]
had made its way into the Constitution without Mississippi's official 
approval. As for the ensuing 130 years, that resolution of rejection 
remained the Mississippi Legislature's official pronouncement on the 
13th amendment. Indeed, for many years, Mississippi's was the only 
State legislature--in the Union well before and long after that 
particular constitutional amendment was proposed and ratified--never to 
approve it. But all of that changed earlier this year. An undotted 
historical ``i'' and an uncrossed social ``t'' were duly dotted and 
crossed when the Mississippi Legislature adopted Senate Concurrent 
Resolution 547 on March 16, 1995, to not only postratify the 13th 
amendment but, also, to finally rescind the embarrassing 1865 
resolution of rejection.


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