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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: 1864-12-20 12:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE_FROM

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 3642: 1864-12-20 12:00:00

Reuben Fenton leaves the House of Representatives; More members join the House; H. R. 602 is reported back from the Committee on the Rebellious States with amendments; President's Annual Message is considered in the Committee of the Whole.

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H. R. 602

There are 4 proposed amendments related to this document on which decisions have not been taken.

A BILL

To guarantee to certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a republican form of government.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That in the States declared in rebellion against the United States, the President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint for each a provisional governor, whose pay and emoluments shall not exceed that of a brigadier general of volunteers, who shall be charged with the civil administration of such State until a State government therein shall be recognized as hereinafter provided.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That until the United States shall have recognized a republican form of State government, the provisional governor in each of said States shall see that this act, and the laws of the United States, and the laws of the State for the protection of persons and property in force when the State government was overthrown by the rebellion, are faithfully executed within the State; but no law or usage whereby any person was heretofore held in involuntary servitude shall be recognized or enforced by any court or officer in such State; and the laws for the government, trial, and punishment of white persons shall extend to all persons, and jurors shall have the qualifications of voters under this law for delegates to the convention. The President shall appoint such officers provided for by the laws of the State when its government was overthrown as he may find necessary to the civil administration of the State, all which officers shall be entitled to receive the fees and emoluments provided by the State laws for such officers.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all persons held to involuntary servitude or labor in the States or parts of States in which such persons have been declared free by any proclamation of the President, are hereby emancipated and discharged therefrom, and they and their posterity shall be forever free. And if any such persons or their posterity shall be restrained of liberty, under pretense of any claim to such service or labor, the courts of the United States shall, on habeas corpus, discharge them.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That if any person declared free by this act, or any law of the United States, or any proclamation of the President, be restrained of liberty, with intent to the held in or reduced to involuntary servitude or labor, the person convicted before a court of competent jurisdiction of such act shall be punished by fine of not less than $1,500, and be imprisoned not less than five nor more than twenty years.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That so soon as the military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed in any State, and the people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the United States, the provisional governor shall direct the marshal of the United States, as speedily as may be, to name a sufficient number of deputies, and to enroll all white male citizens of the United States resident in the State in their respective counties and to request each one to take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and in his enrollment to designate those who take and those who refuse to take that oath, which rolls shall be forthwith returned to the provisional governor; and if the persons taking that oath shall, together with the citizens of the United States from such State in the military or naval service of the United States, amount to a majority of the persons enrolled in the State, he shall, by proclamation, invite the loyal people of the State to elect delegates to a convention charged to declare the will of the people of the State relative to the reestablishment of a State government, subject to and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States.

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the convention shall consist of as many members as both houses of the last constitutional State legislature, apportioned by the provisional governor among the counties, parishes, or districts of the State, in proportion to the population enrolled by the marshal, in compliance with the provisions of this act, or in the military or naval service of the United States as aforesaid. The provisional governor shall, by proclamation, declare the number of delegates to be elected by each country, parish, or election district; name a day of election, not less than thirty days thereafter; designate the places of voting in each country, parish, or district, conforming, as nearly as may be convenient, to the places used in the State elections next preceding the rebellion; appoint one or more commissioners to hold the election at each place of voting, and provide an adequate force to keep the peace during the election.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That all citizens of the United States of the age of twenty-one years, residents of the State, who are in the military or naval service of the United States, and all who have been honorably discharged therefrom, together with all loyal citizens enrolled as aforesaid, who shall take and subscribe the oath of allegiance to the United States, prescribed in the act of July 2, 1862, shall be electors, and may vote for delegates to the convention hereinbefore authorized, in the county, parish, or district in which they reside, and all citizens of the United States who are in the military or naval service of the United States shall vote at the headquarters of their respective commands, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the provisional governor for the taking and return of their votes; but no person who has held or exercised any office, civil or military, State or confederate, under the rebel usurpation, or who has voluntarily borne arms against the United States, shall vote or be eligible to be elected as delegate at such election.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or either of them, shall hold the election in conformity with this act, and, so far as may be consistent therewith, shall proceed in the manner used in the State prior to the rebellion. The oath of allegiance shall be taken and subscribed on the poll-book by every voter in the form above prescribed, but every person known by or proved to the commissioners to have held or exercised any office, civil or military, State or confederate, under the rebel usurpation, or to have voluntarily borne arms against the United States, shall be excluded though he offer to take the oath; and in case any person who shall have borne arms against the United States shall offer to vote, he shall be deemed to have borne arms voluntarily unless he shall prove the contrary by the testimony of a qualified voter. The poll-book, showing the name and oath of each voter, shall be returned to the provisional governor by the commissioners of election or the one acting, and the provisional governor shall canvass such returns, and declare the person having the highest number of votes elected.

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the provisional governor shall, by proclamation, convene the delegates elected as aforesaid, at the capital of the State, on a day not more than three months after the election, giving at least thirty days' notice of such day. In case the said capital shall in his judgement be unfit, he shall in his proclamation appoint another place. He shall preside over the deliberations of the convention, and administer to each delegate, before taking his seat in the convention, the oath of allegiance to the United States in the form hereinbefore prescribed.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the convention shall declare, on behalf of the people of the State, their submission to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and shall adopt the following provisions, hereby prescribed by the United States in the execution of the constitutional duty to guaranty a republican form of government to every State, and incorporate them in the constitution of the State, that is to say:

First. No person who has held or exercised any office, civil or military, except civil offices merely ministerial and military offices below the grade of colonel, State or confederate, under the usurping power, shall vote for or be a member of the Legislature or Governor.

Second. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, and freedom and equality of civil rights before the law are guarantied to all persons in said State.

Third. No debt, State or confederate, created by or under the sanction of the usurping power, or in any manner in aid thereof, shall be recognised or paid by the State.

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That when the convention shall have adopted those provisions, it shall proceed to reestablish a republican form of government, and ordain a constitution containing those provisions, which, when adopted, the convention shall by ordinance provide for submitting to the people of the State entitled to vote under this law, at an election to be held in the manner prescribed by the act for the election of delegates, but at a time and place named by the convention, at which election the said electors, and none other, shall vote directly for or against such constitution and form of State government. And the returns of said election shall be made to the provisional governor, who shall canvass the same in the presence of the electors, and if a majority of the votes cast be for the constitution and form of government, he shall certify the same, with a copy thereof, to the President of the United States, who, after obtaining the assent of Congress, by act or joint resolution, shall, by proclamation, recognize the government so established, and none other, as the constitutional government of the State; and from the date of such recognition, and not before, Senators and Representatives and electors for President and Vice-President may be elected in such State, according to the laws of the State and of the United States.

Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That if the convention shall refuse to re-establish the State government on the conditions aforesaid, the provisional governor shall declare it dissolved; but it shall be the duty of the President, whenever he shall have reason to believe that a sufficient number of the people of the State entitled to vote under this act, in number not less than a majority of those enrolled as aforesaid, are willing to reestablish a State government on the conditions aforesaid, to direct the provisional governor to order another election of delegates to a convention for the purpose and in the manner prescribed in this act, and to proceed in all respects as hereinbefore provided, either to dissolve the convention or to certify the State government reéstablished by it to the President.

Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That the United States, in Congress assembled, do hereby recognize the government of the State of Louisiana, inaugurated under and by the convention which assembled on the sixth day of April, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-four, at the city of New Orleans; and the government of the State of Arkansas, inaugurated under and by the convention which assembled on the eighth day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, at the city of Little Rock: Provided, That the same or other conventions, duly assembled, shall first have incorporated into the constitutions of those States, respectively, the conditions prescribed in the twelfth section of this act, and the marshal of the United States shall have returned to the President of the United States the enrolment directed by the seventh section to be made and returned to the provisional governor, and it shall appear thereby that the persons taking the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, together with the citizens of the United States from such State in the military or naval service of the United States, amount to a majority of the persons enrolled in the State. And the President shall, thereupon, by proclamation, declare the recognition by the United States, in Congress assembled, of the said government of such State; and from the date of such proclamation the said government shall be entitled to the gurarantee and all other rights of a State government under the Constitution of the United States; but this act shall not operate a recognition of a State government in either of said States till the conditions aforesaid are complied with, and till that time those States shall be subject to this law.

Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That is the persons exercising the functions of Governor and Legislature under the rebel usurpation in any State heretofore declared to be in rebellion shall, before armed resistance to the national government is suppressed in such State, submit to the authority of the United States, and take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and adopt by law the third provision prescribed in the eighth section of this act, and ratify the amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed by Congress to the Legislatures of the several States on the 31st day of January, A. D. 1865, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to recognize the said Governor and Legislature as the lawful State government of such State, and to certify the fact to Congress for its recognition: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall operate to disturb the boundary lines of any State heretofore recognized by and now represented in the Congress of the United States.

Decisions yet to be taken

  • Motion to Resume Consideration of H. R. 602 (introduced on 1865-02-06 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e902350)
    • Motion to Postpone Consideration of H. R. 602 for Two Weeks (introduced on 1865-02-06 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e902351)
  • Motion for the Regular Order of Business (introduced on 1865-02-08 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e903292)
  • Motion for the Previous Question (introduced on 1865-02-21 11:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e903047)

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