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.pdfLincoln's SignatureArticle XIIIHamlin & ColfaxIn the case Manuscript Document Signed, "Abraham Lincoln" as President, February 1, 1865. Washington, D.C., 1 page, 15-1/2"x20-1/2" engrossed on lined vellum. Co-signed by Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, Schuyler Colfax as Speaker of the House, John W. Forney as Secretary of the Senate. This document bears Lincoln's strong signature on the far right side, down approximately 1/3 of the document. The lower 2/3 of the document is arranged in five columns. A text headline is presented, "In Senate April 8, 1864," below of which are the signatures of 36 United States Senators. Below that, another text headline is presented, "In the House of Representatives January 31, 1865," below of which are 110 United States Representatives. The document is presented in an ornate wood cabinet, 4' x 5-1/2,' with curved panel doors which, when opened, reveal this extraordinary document. "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 of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, (two thirds of both branches 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, number 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." This is one of thirteen known copies of the Thirteenth Amendment signed by Lincoln, 11 of which are held in permanent institutional collections. The known copies reside as follows (data supplied by Seth Kaller Census) (1) United States-National Archives Copy. Record Group 11 (State Department), National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C. (DNA), (2) Wilmington Copy. Morris Library, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, (3) Huntington Copy. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. (CSmH), (4) Karpeles Copy. Karpeles Manuscript Library, Santa Barbara, California, (5) Gilder Lehrman Library Senate Copy, (6) The Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne Indiana, (7) St. Mary College Senate Copy. De Paul Library, St. Mary College, Leavenworth, Kansas, (8) Privately-held Copy; present whereabouts not known,(9) Gilder Lehrman Library Congressional Copy, (10) Privately-held Copy; offered by Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions, (11) Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Henry Horner Lincoln Collection, Springfield, Illinois, (12) Cornell University Copy. Rare Book Department, Olin Library, Cornell University, (NIC), Ithaca, New York, (13) Library of Congress Copy. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The 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 sent to the states for approval in 1789. Background to the adoption of the 13th Amendment: Lincoln, believing slavery to be morally wrong, had championed against it for most of his political career. However, he also recognized that the president did not possess the Constitutional power to outlaw the institution, except, perhaps, as a matter of military necessity. The power to fully abolish slavery, he acknowledged, rested with Congress. Therefore, he carefully crafted the Emancipation Proclamation to affect only those states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863. He then began to push for a Constitutional amendment that would forever abolish slavery in the United States. Such an amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, with a vote of 38 to 6, three votes shy of the 2/3 necessary for approval. Two months later, however, it was defeated in the House of Representatives, 95 to 66. Lincoln, not about to give up, made abolition a central plank of the Republican platform and his re-election campaign. The 1864 elections gave Lincoln and his party a new mandate and enough seats in the House to guarantee passage of the stalled amendment. Not content to wait until the new Congress met in March, however, the amendment's supporters brought the measure to another vote in the House on January 31, 1865. This time it passed, by a vote of 119 to 56, with 8 abstentions. The outcome of the vote had been in doubt up until the final hour. A Pennsylvania Democrat, Archibald McAllister, opened the debate by explaining why he had changed his vote from a "Nay" to an "Aye." He had been in favor of exhausting all means of conciliation, McAllister stated, but was now satisfied that nothing short of independence would satisfy the Southern Confederacy, and that therefore it must be destroyed, and he must cast his vote against its cornerstone, and declare eternal war with the enemies of the country. Fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Alexander Hamilton Coffroth, who was also changing his vote, followed, urging approval of the amendment. Arguments continued until, finally, the votes were tallied. When Speaker Colfax declared the results, "a moment of silence succeeded, and then, from floor and galleries, burst a simultaneous shout of joy and triumph, spontaneous, irrepressible and uncontrollable, swelling and prolonged in one vast volume of reverberating thunder…" (Report of the special committee on the passage by the House of Representatives of the constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery. January 31st, 1865: The Action of the Union League Club on the Amendment, February 9, 1865. "From Slavery to Freedom." American Memory, Library of Congress). Following in the footsteps of President James Buchanan, who had signed a proposed amendment to protect slavery in the United States (The Corwin Amendment), Lincoln signed the official resolution, along with several courtesy-signed copies (coincidentally, thirteen copies with Lincoln's genuine signature are now known). For that action, the Senate, on February 7th, resolved that the president's signature had been "unnecessary" (referring to the Supreme Court decision, Hollingsworth v. Virginia, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 378 (1798) was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the President of the United States has no formal role in the process of amending the United States Constitution. While it is permissible, a Presidential signature is unnecessary). The Senate then directed the Senate secretary to "withhold from the House of Representatives the message of the President informing the Senate that he had approved and signed the same..." (Senate Journal). It is unlikely that the president would have signed copies of the Thirteenth Amendment resolution subsequent to the "withholding" resolution's passage. This courtesy-signed copy of the thirteenth amendment resolution also bears the signatures of all but two of the 38 Senators who voted for its passage. This document was not signed by Benjamin Franklin Harding of Oregon or Morton Smith Wilkinson, Minnesota. On January 30th, Harding had been granted a leave of absence for the remainder of the session. The president's signature may not have been necessary, but the same could not be said of state approval. Before the amendment could become law, ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures was required. Accordingly, Secretary of State William H. Seward immediately sent certified copies of the resolution to each governor. But even before a formal copy was received, Illinois had ratified the thirteenth amendment. In a show of support for the president, his home state had voted in favor of ratification on February 1, the same day that Lincoln signed the measure. Governor Richard J. Oglesby telegraphed the news to Lincoln at 7:25 that evening, informing him that "[T]he Legislature has by a large majority ratified the amendment to the Constitution. All suppose you had signed the Joint resolution of Congress. Great enthusiasm" (Oglesby to Lincoln, February 1, 1865, AL Papers at the Library of Congress). Five minutes later, Ward H. Lamon, the president's old law partner, and Edward L. Baker, editor of the Illinois State Journal, relayed the same news. The amendment had passed, they exclaimed triumphantly, "with a great hurrah" (Lamon and Baker to Lincoln, February 1, 1865, AL Papers at the Library of Congress). Addressing a Washington, D.C. crowd celebrating the historic event, Lincoln offered congratulations on the nation's great moral victory, but noted that there was still work to be done - the states had to consummate Congress's action. Illinois, he informed them had already done its part. Maryland was about half through, Lincoln added, but he felt proud that Illinois was "a little ahead" (contemporary newspaper accounts of Lincoln's speech, Basler 8:255). By the time Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, twenty states had ratified the amendment, including Louisiana and Tennessee. Governments of the latter two states had been reconstructed under Lincoln's so-called "Ten Percent Plan." A component of his December 8, 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, the plan guaranteed presidential recognition of new state governments once the number of persons swearing allegiance to the United States equaled ten percent of the number of votes cast in that state in the 1860 presidential election. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to see the amendment become law. On April 14, 1865, Arkansas became the 21st state to ratify the measure; the approval of six more states was required. That evening, Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. With Georgia's ratification on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution. When the amendment went into effect twelve days later, it freed nearly a million slaves still held in bondage. By the end of January 1866, though no longer required for implementation, five more states had added their votes of approval. The remaining states - Texas, Delaware, Kentucky and Mississippi - finally ratified the amendment in 1870, 1901, 1976 and 1995, respectively. (See the Addendum below for a full listing of ratification dates.) Publication History: Basler 5: 442-443. John H. Rhodehamel and Seth T. Kaller, "Copies of the Thirteenth Amendment," Manuscripts 44:2, p.109, #6. Ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution: The dates of ratification were: Illinois, February 1, 1865; Rhode Island, February 2, 1865; Michigan, February 2, 1865; Maryland, February 3, 1865; New York, February 3, 1865; Pennsylvania, February 3, 1865; West Virginia, February 3, 1865; Missouri, February 6, 1865; Maine, February 7, 1865; Kansas, February 7, 1865; Massachusetts, February 7, 1865; Virginia, February 9, 1865; Ohio, February 10, 1865; Indiana, February 13, 1865; Nevada, February 16, 1865; Louisiana, February 17, 1865; Minnesota, February 23, 1865; Wisconsin, February 24, 1865; Vermont, March 9, 1865; Tennessee, April 7, 1865; Arkansas, April 14, 1865; Connecticut, May 4, 1865; New Hampshire, July 1, 1865; South Carolina, November 13, 1865; Alabama, December 2, 1865; North Carolina, December 4, 1865; Georgia, December 6, 1865. Ratification was completed on December 6, 1865. The amendment was subsequently ratified by Oregon, December 8, 1865; California, December 19, 1865; Florida, December 28, 1865 (Florida again ratified on June 9, 1868, upon its adoption of a new constitution); Iowa, January 15, 1866; New Jersey, January 23, 1866 (after having rejected the amendment on March 16, 1865); Texas, February 18, 1870; Delaware, February 12, 1901 (after having rejected the amendment on February 8, 1865); Kentucky, March 18, 1976 (after having rejected it on February 24, 1865).