[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 155 (Wednesday, December 5, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H6663-H6664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE 147TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
(Mr. BUTTERFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an important
day in American history. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the 147th
anniversary of the abolition of that regrettable institution of
slavery. On 6 December 1865, the State of Georgia became the 27th State
to ratify the 13th Amendment, marking the three-fourths supermajority
necessary to amend the Constitution. The 13th Amendment accomplished
something that the Emancipation Proclamation did not and perhaps could
not do. It declared the nonexistence of slavery in the whole of the
``United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.''
The triumph the 13th Amendment represents not just for African
Americans but for all Americans should be celebrated every December 6.
[From the Raleigh News & Observer, Dec. 5, 2012]
THE DAY SLAVERY OFFICIALLY ENDED
(By James A. Wynn Jr.)
The movie ``Lincoln'' highlights the struggle over the
passage and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, the
historic proviso that officially ended slavery in America.
The triumph that the Thirteenth Amendment represents--not
just for African-Americans but for all Americans--should be
celebrated, and we should celebrate it tomorrow, December 6.
No amendment has a greater or simpler declarative force
than the Thirteenth. It states uncompromisingly that
``Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist
within the United States.'' The amendment also empowered
Congress to enact laws to enforce its substantive
protections.
The significance of the Thirteenth Amendment cannot be
overstated. Among other things, it extended the phrase ``We
the People'' in the Preamble to the Constitution to all
Americans, it ended the implicit sanctioning of slavery in
the original Constitution and it made clear that abolishing
slavery was the sovereign will of the people.
The U.S. Supreme Court, with its notorious 1857 Dred Scott
decision, left no doubt that the phrase ``We the People'' in
the Preamble did not include slaves. According to the court,
African-Americans were not intended to be included in ``We
the People'' because ``[t]hey had for more than a century
before been regarded as an inferior order . . . and so far
inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was
bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and
lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.''
The Thirteenth Amendment repudiated and effectively
overruled Dred Scott and all it stood for, making clear that
neither African-Americans, nor anyone else, could ``justly
and lawfully'' be enslaved in this great country.
Further, the Thirteenth Amendment ended the original
Constitution's implicit sanctioning of slavery. Although the
word ``slave'' appears nowhere in the original Constitution,
the document tacitly accepted slavery. For example, as a
result of an infamous compromise between Northern and
Southern states, Article I of the Constitution based
political representation in the House of Representatives on
the population of ``free Persons'' and three-fifths ``of all
other Persons'' in each State.
Thus, despite the Declaration of Independence's majestic
pronouncement that ``all men are created equal,'' the
original Constitution indicated otherwise. With the
Thirteenth Amendment, the Constitution expressly rejected
slavery.
Finally, the Thirteenth Amendment, ``ratified by the
Legislatures of three-fourths of the several states,'' as
required by Article V of the Constitution, abolished slavery
through the sovereign will of the people and the democratic
process. By contrast, the Emancipation Proclamation, an 1863
declaration freeing slaves in Confederate territory, was a
wartime measure issued unilaterally by Lincoln.
The Thirteenth Amendment has been the subject of far less
litigation than the Fourteenth. As a result, it has suffered
unjust obscurity. And to the extent we celebrate it at all,
we do so on the wrong day, February 1--the anniversary of the
day President Abraham Lincoln signed a joint resolution
submitting the proposed amendment to the states for
ratification.
Addressing a crowd outside the White House after he signed
the joint resolution, Lincoln remarked that the occasion was
one ``of congratulation to the country and to the whole
world.'' In 1948, President Harry Truman declared February 1
``National Freedom Day.''
Yet despite the symbolic significance of Lincoln's act, the
Thirteenth Amendment had no legal effect until the states
adopted it. Indeed, Lincoln's signature was unnecessary, and
no other proposed amendment has been submitted to a president
for signature.
The Thirteenth Amendment was put to all 36 states,
including those formerly part of the Confederacy. Georgia
became the 27th state to ratify the amendment, on Dec. 6,
1865, marking the achievement of the three-fourths
supermajority necessary to amend the Constitution. The
Supreme Court has held that constitutional amendments take
legal effect when ratified. Thus, Dec. 6, 1865, marks the
arguably most significant, and yet perhaps most unrecognized,
date in African-American history.
Sadly, Lincoln never lived to see the Thirteenth Amendment
ratified: He was assassinated on April 15, 1865, nearly eight
months before Georgia provided the decisive vote in favor of
ratification. No doubt Lincoln would have celebrated the day
our nation constitutionally enshrined an abhorrence of
slavery, the evil institution against which Lincoln had
fought so hard.
No longer should the Thirteenth Amendment rest in silence.
We should begin our holiday season by celebrating on Thursday
the 147th anniversary of the Thirteenth Amendment's
ratification. It is a day not just for African-Americans, but
for all Americans, to commemorate our bettering our
Constitution by spelling out the truth that Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. rightly called self-evident: ``All men are created
equal.''
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