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Home , Andrew Johnson, Hannibal Hamlin, Involuntary servitude, Southern Unionist, War Democrat

Abolishing : The 13th Amendment Signed by Abraham

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the ”

Abraham Lincoln. Manuscript Document Signed (“”) as President, with his Autograph Endorsement (“Approved. February 1, 1865.”) Washington, D.C., ca. February 1, 1865. Co-signed by as Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, as Speaker of the House, and John W. Forney as Secretary of the Senate. 1 p., 15 1/16 x 20 in., on lined vellum with ruled borders. #22159

This amendment, outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude, was the first substantive change to America’s conception of its liberties since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. After signing the original resolution on February 1, Lincoln responded to a serenade, and to questions about the legality of the Emancipation Proclamation and prior efforts to eradicate slavery, by saying that the amendment “is a king’s cure for all the evils. It winds the whole thing up.”

Transcript:

A Duplicate. Thirty-Eighth Congress of the United States of America, at the second session, begun and held at the City of Washington, on Monday the fifth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four. A Resolution submitting to the legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the 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 Speaker of the House of Representatives. I certify that this Resolution } originated in the Senate. } H Hamlin J. W. Forney } Vice President of the United States, Secretary. } and President of the Senate.

Approved. February 1, 1865. Abraham Lincoln Dating and Number of Manuscript Copies

Having already been approved by the Senate the previous April, the amendment passed in the House on January 31, 1865. The engrossed manuscript was prepared, and Lincoln signed it on February 1st. There does not appear to be any record of the number of “souvenir” copies of the Amendment prepared for Lincoln to sign. Twelve to fifteen are known with Lincoln’s signature. Several additional manuscript copies are known signed by Senators, Congressmen and other officials, but with the space for the President’s name blank. On February 7th, the Senate, anxious not to set a precedent, resolved that the president’s signature had been “unnecessary” on a joint amendment resolution. The Senate secretary, John W. Forney, was directed 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) All of the Lincoln-signed copies were likely completed before February 7th. After the resolution, it is probable that the president would have thought it impolitic to sign any additional copies.

See below, “The Withholding Resolution, From the Journal of the Senate,” for more information.

Provenance of the Colfax Copy

Anderson Galleries’ auction of “Historical Autograph Letters & Documents from the Collections of Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of the United States…,” December 8, 1927, lot 124, for $12,000, to Gabriel Wells, a New York dealer. Sold by his executor to collector Justin G. Turner. Sold in the Turner auction at Charles Hamilton Galleries, October 25, 1967, lot 77, for $9,000 (in the same auction, Lincoln’s 14 page Autograph Manuscript speech on inventions sold for $5,000), to David Wolper, who sold to James Ruddy, who sold to the present owner.

The “Strohm” Copies of the Amendment

Isaac Strohm was chief engrossing clerk of the House of Representatives during the 38th Congress. In 1896, his daughters sold his signed copy of the Amendment (now at the Huntington Library; the copy most similar to Colfax’s). At the time, they wrote four background letters that have led to the erroneous statement that only three souvenir copies of the Amendment were signed. By their account, the copies were said to have been prepared for Lincoln, Hamlin and Colfax respectively, but we have not seen any evidence that Lincoln would have had a copy made for himself. The Huntington’s copy was said to be Hamlin’s, but its provenance does not support it as such. The Colfax copy, therefore, is the only one with definitive provenance from any of the original leaders who shepherded the Amendment through Congress.

Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885), born in New York City, moved with his family to Indiana when he was an adolescent. Colfax pursued a career in journalism, serving as legislative correspondent for the Indiana State Journal and becoming part-owner of the Whig organ of northern Indiana, the South Bend Free Press (renamed the St. Joseph Valley Register in 1845). Colfax was a member of the 1850 state constitutional convention, and four years later was elected as a Republican to Congress, where he served until 1869. An energetic opponent of slavery, Colfax’s speech attacking the Lecompton Legislature in Kansas became the most widely requested Republican campaign document in the 1858 mid-term election. In 1862, following the electoral defeat of Galusha Grow, Colfax was elected Speaker of the House. In that capacity, Colfax announced the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865: “The constitutional majority of two thirds having voted in the affirmative, the Joint Resolution is passed.” Colfax considered February 1, 1865, the day he signed the House resolution, the happiest day of his life. “Fourteen years before, among a mere handful of kindred spirits in the Constitutional Convention of his State, he had said: ‘Wherever, within my sphere, be it narrow or wide, oppression treads its iron heel on human rights, I will raise my voice in earnest protest.’ He had kept his word, and well earned his share in the triumph.” (Hollister, 245). Colfax next served as Vice President under Ulysses S. (1869- 1873). He lost a re-nomination bid in 1872 as a result of his involvement in the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal. [Hollister, Ovando James. Life of Schuyler Colfax (1886).]

Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891) had served in the state legislature before entering Congress in 1843 as a Democrat. In 1848 Hamlin was elected by the anti-slavery wing of the Democratic party to fill a vacancy in the Senate. Re-elected in 1850, he served until 1857, at which point he resigned to become the Republican . Hamlin returned to the Senate later that year. Hamlin was chosen as Lincoln’s 1860 in order to “nationalize” the Republican party. Though the nomination stunned Hamlin, he was persuaded that turning it down would only give more ammunition to his former party. Lincoln, a westerner, had been a Whig, and claimed as a political role model. Hamlin, on the other hand, had spent most of his career as a Democrat, and had openly opposed Clay on the Senate floor. What Lincoln and Hamlin shared, however, was their opposition to the expansion of slavery.

In 1864, delegates to the Republican convention did not consider him a strong enough drawing card for voters, especially in border areas or the “reconstructed” south. Instead, , the Union military governor of , was nominated for the vice presidential slot. As a and , Johnson provided strategic and symbolic power for the Republicans that Hamlin could not. The vice president would later observe that he had been “dragged out of the Senate, against my wishes – tried to do my whole duty, and was then unceremoniously ‘whistled down the wind’” (Hatfield, 203-209). He later accepted a position as collector of the port of Boston, returning to the Senate in 1869. From 1881-82, Hamlin was U.S. minister to Spain, before devoting the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits.

John Wien Forney (1817-1881), newspaper editor and publisher, was a staunch Democrat whose support for President had brought him government appointments (clerk of the House of Representatives, for instance) and lucrative printing contracts, but not the higher offices to which he aspired. With the decline of his relationship with Buchanan, and his failure to win election to the U.S. Senate over , he started the anti-Buchanan Philadelphia Press and switched to the Republicans in 1860.

Forney became a key Lincoln supporter. He again served as House clerk and then was appointed secretary of the Senate until 1868. At the same time, he established the Washington Chronicle (which was distributed to the public, and also in large numbers to soldiers in the Army of the Potomac) and maintained his editorial “Letter from Occasional” column in the Press. Forney enjoyed regular access, earning him the appellation of “Lincoln’s dog.” He interviewed the President on issues such as freedom of the press and the probable effects of the Emancipation Proclamation, and was invited to consult about cabinet appointments. In 1863, at the consecration of the Gettysburg Cemetery, he got “roaring drunk and gave a violently pro-Lincoln speech” (Boritt). Given this history, perhaps Forney was not suited for another task: He was charged with chaperoning newly-elected vice president Andrew Johnson at the March 4, 1865 inauguration. Johnson was widely criticized for his drunken performance at the ceremony.

After Lincoln’s assassination, Forney continued to support Johnson. But, when Johnson vetoed the ’s Bureau Act in 1868, Forney changed positions and campaigned for Johnson’s impeachment. Selling the Chronicle and returning to Philadelphia, the chameleon-like editor switched back to the Democrats, and started a weekly magazine, The Progress. In addition, he served as a director of the & Pacific Railway.

Condition: The signatures of Hamlin and Lincoln are very fine. The balance of the writing is somewhat faded, but entirely legible. Still, it is in better condition than several other known examples. This has not been treated by a conservator. Flattening and string matting should dramatically improve the appearance of the document.