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Photomontage Showing President Lincoln with Congressional Supporters of the Proposed Anti-Slavery Constitutional Amendment, 1865
The Emancipation Proclamation only declared freedom to slaves in rebel states. So in 1864, President Lincoln drafted a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to legally abolish slavery forever. Congress approved this Thirteenth Amendment January 31, 1865, but it took 10 months before the necessary states ratified it so it would become law. Unfortunately, President Lincoln did not live to see that happen. |