[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16264-16265]
[From the U.S. 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

[[Page 16265]]

     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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