A Just and Lasting Peace : the 13th Amendment

Ratified December 6, 1865.

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.

Editor Smith ascribes passage to Johnson's "influence" with the states of the South.

Eight of the Southern states that, he says, helped to ratify the amendment had not yet been restored to the union and did not have senators or house members seated in Washington.