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“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…”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Document Signed (“Abraham Lincoln”) as President, [Washington, D.C., ca. February 1, 1865]. Co-signed by Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, Schuyler Colfax as Speaker of the House, 37 of the 38 senators and 114 of the 119 Congressmen who voted for it. One of six or seven known “Congressional” copies of the Thirteenth Amendment signed by Lincoln and members of the Senate and House who voted in favor of the resolution [and one of thirteen or fourteen known copies signed by Lincoln]. 1 page, 20 5/8 x 15 3/8”, engrossed on lined vellum.

Inventory #21902       SOLD — please inquire about other items

This amendment, outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude, was the first change made to the Constitution in over sixty years, and the first substantive change to America’s conception of its liberties since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.

Transcript

“Duplicate.

Thirty-Eighth Congress of the United States.

-----------------------

    A Resolution: Submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.

    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said Constitution, namely:

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.

   Section 2.  Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

            Schuyler Colfax

Attest:                                                                       Speaker of the House of Representatives

                   J.W. Forney                                                                     H Hamlin

Secretary of the Senate                     Vice President of the United States

Ew^d. McPherson                                                        and President of the Senate.

     Clerk of the House of Representatives.

 Approved February 1, 1865  Abraham Lincoln

 

[Transcript continued]

[Note: names below are listed in full, rather than in transcript format]

 

In the Senate, April 8, 1864.

Dixon, James	Clark, Daniel	Morgan, Edwin D.	Fessenden, William P.*
Hale, John Parker	Conness, John	Howard, Jacob M.	Willey, Waitman T.
Pomeroy, Samuel C.	Foster, Lafayette S.	Ramsey, Alexander	Sumner, Charles
Harris, Ira	Wilson, Henry	Nesmith, James W.	Sprague, William
Johnson, Reverdy	Cowan, Edgar	Lane, Henry Smith	Trumbull, Lyman
Morrill, Lot M.	Van Winkle, Peter G.	Foot, Solomon
Collamer, Jacob	Chandler, Zachariah	Sherman, John	Anthony, Henry B.
Henderson, John B.	Howe, Timothy O.	Wilkinson, M. S.	Lane, James Henry
Grimes, James W.	Harlan, James	Doolittle, James R.	Ten Eyck, John C.
Fessenden, William P.*	Brown, Benjamin G.		Wade, Benjamin F.

 

In the House of Representatives, January 31, 1865.

Stevens, Thaddeus	Eliot, Thomas D.	Pike, Frederick A.	Pomeroy, Theodore M.
Van Valkenburgh, R.	Jenckes, Thomas A.	Kasson, John A.	Tracy, Henry W.
Marvin, James M.	Allison, William B.	Miller, Samuel F.	Longyear, John W.
Loan, Benjamin F.	Hale, James T.	Davis, Henry Winter	McClurg, Joseph W.
Myers, Leonard	Boyd, Sempronius	Norton, Jesse O.	Wilson, James F.
Morrill, Justin S.	Rollins, Edward H.	Thayer, M. Russell	Deming, Henry C.
Driggs, John F.	McBride, John R.	Griswold, John A.	Donnelly, Ignatius
Davis, Thomas T.	Hulburd, Calvin T.	Rice, Alexander H.	Brandegee, Augustus
Blow, Henry Taylor	Boutwell, George S.	Hooper, Samuel	Windom, William
Higby, William	Hotchkiss, Giles	Smithers, Nathaniel	Clarke, Freeman
Worthington, Henry	[?] Gasson, J.	Knox, Samuel	Littlejohn, DeWitt C.
Broomall, John M.	Williams, Thomas	Cobb, Amasa	Kelley, William D.
Baxter, Portus	Baldwin, John D.	Orth, Godlove S.	Shannon, Thomas B.
Ashley, James M.	Morris, Daniel	Hubbard, John H.	Eckley, Ephraim R.
Spalding, Rufus P.	Baldwin, Augustus	Scofield, Glenni W.	Blair, Jacob B.*
King, Austin A.	Hutchins, Wells A.	Nelson, Homer A.	Hubbard, Asahel W.
Perham, Sidney	Randall, William H.	Whaley, Kellian V.	Price, Hiram
Upson, Charles	Dawes, Henry L.	Gooch, Daniel W.	Washburn, William B.
Kellogg, Orlando	Beaman, Fernando	McAllister, Archibald	Sloan, Ithamar C.
Wilder, A. Carter	Brown, William G.	O'Neill, Charles	Patterson, James W.
Myers, Amos	Thomas, Francis	Ingersoll, Ebon C.	Cole, Cornelius
Arnold, Isaac W.	Rice, John H.	Washburne, Elihu B.	Herrick, Anson
English, James E.	Dixon, Nathan F.	Colfax, Schuyler	Odell, Moses F.
Ames, Oakes	Frank, Augustus	Rollins, James S.	Farnsworth, John F.
Kellogg, Francis W.	Garfield, James A.	Blair, Jacob B.*	Anderson, Lucien
Moorhead, James K.	Woodbridge, Fred.	Bailey, Joseph	Steele, John B.
Webster, Edwin H.	Yeaman, George H.	Schenck, Robert C.	Alley, John B.
Smith, Green C.	Blaine, James G.	Grinnell, Josiah B.	Wheeler, Ezra
Coffroth, Alex.	Clark, Ambrose W.		Creswell, John

 

*Duplicate signatures   

Signatures

There are no known copies signed by each of the 38 Senators and 119 Congressmen who voted for the amendment.

This document was not signed by Senator Benjamin Franklin Harding of Oregon; on January 30^th, he had been granted a leave of absence for the remainder of the session. Senator William Pitt Fessenden, who by February of 1865 was serving as Secretary of the Treasury (he would submit his resignation on February 6 and resume a Senate seat on March 4, 1865), did sign this document, but did not sign the “Senate” copies.

Representatives G.W. Julian, W.D. McIndoe, W. Radford, J.F. Starr, E. Dumont, and J. Ganson (though his name is penciled in), did not sign here.