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13th Amendment. Going Farther. The Emancipation Proclamation was largely symbolic- only freeing slaves in rebellious states Lincoln believed a Constitutional Amendment was necessary to insure the destruction of slavery
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Going Farther • The Emancipation Proclamation was largely symbolic- only freeing slaves in rebellious states • Lincoln believed a Constitutional Amendment was necessary to insure the destruction of slavery • Senate passed the Amendment with relative ease in April of 1864, but then stalemate.
Key Players • Republican Congressional victory in 1864 election • Thaddeus Stevens- radical republican who argued for not only abolition but black suffrage and the confiscation of Confederate property after the war • Rumor that his black housekeeper Lydia Smith was his mistress
Success • After a tumultuous battle in Congress, the 13th Amendment passes on January 31st, 1865 • Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865- news reaches Jefferson Davis on April 12