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  1. Overview: United States Thirteenth Amendment 1863-65
  2. Full Record: United States Thirteenth Amendment 1863-65
  3. Committee:The House of Representatives
  4. Session: 1864-03-14 12:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE

United States Thirteenth Amendment 1863-65

An amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish slavery introduced during the American Civil War.

The House of Representatives

The House of Representatives of the Thirty-Eighth Session of Congress

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Document introduced in:

Session 8353: 1864-03-14 12:00:00

Mr. Rice submits a Resolution to Secure Equal Rights for Black Citizens, which lies over under the rules.

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Resolution to Secure Equal Rights for Black Citizens

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Whereas the vital principle of our national life emanated from and survives in the grand and Heaven-inspired declaration "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and whereas the Government of the United States was established, and the Constitution adopted, in the earnest desire and confident expectation that both would speedily and finally operate in harmony with said "declaration;" and thereby secure to all native and naturalized citizens equal civil rights and privileges, regardless of all conditions of birth, race, descent, worldly possessions, or religious faith; and whereas the system of American slavery has been and is utterly subversive and destructive of the aforesaid principles, desires, and expectations, and has been the fruitful progenitor of all manner of evils, social, moral, and political, producing cruelty and oppression to the slave, demoralization and degradation to the free laborer, and brutalization and arrogance in the slave-driver and the slavemaster, and has finally culminated in robbery and murder, rebellion and civil war, and has thus conclusively demonstrated that it cannot be longer tolerated with safety to the Government and peace to the Union, and that justice, sound morality, and national unity, each and all, demand its entire extinction; and whereas our people of African descent have in the present war been more unanimous in their loyalty to the Government and their devotedness to the Union than any other class, and have, at the call of Congress and the Executive, sprung to arms to protect the one and maintain the other, and have bravely and nobly vindicated their courage and their manhood upon the land and upon the water, on the battle-field and on the gun-deck; and whereas the freedmen in the District of Columbia and elsewhere in the United States have, by their obedience to the laws, their willingness to labor, their desire for improvement, and their ability to perform military service, evinced their capabilities as citizens and soldiers, and thus practically reversed and annihilated the monstrous judicial dictum and heartless party dogma, that "they have no rights which white men are bound to respect:" Therefore,

Resolved, That the Congress of the United States should by positive and effective legislation, and in accordance with the true theory of our republican form of government, guaranty and secure equality of civil rights and privileges to all classes of persons residing within the District of Columbia and the Territories, and wherever else the Government of the United States possesses sole and exclusive jurisdiction, who are required and made liable, under the Constitution and the laws, to contribute to the support and maintenance of the Government by taxation and military service, and in like manner to protect, secure, and defend all persons in life, liberty, and lawful pursuits, throughout the length and breadth of the Republic.

Resolved, That American slavery having engendered the rebellion and sustained and prolonged the war by which uncounted thousands of the best citizens of the Republic have been made to suffer and bleed and die, and being subversive of natural right and justice, contrary to the spirit of our institutions, destructive of the best interests of society, disgraceful to our civilization, dangerous to the Republic, and accursed of God and all good men, should not be longer tolerated, but should by force of law in the adhering States, and the power of arms in the rebellious States, be forever abolished and exterminated.

Resolved, That all statutes, legislative acts, and city ordinances having the force of law in the District of Columbia and the organized Territories of the United States, whereby persons of African descent residing therein are deprived of their civil rights and restrained of their just privileges, ought in justice to be repealed and declared void.

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