Monday, November 2, 2009

The 13th Amendment

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"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."

The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The amendment dictates that, unless legally convicted guilty of a crime and sentenced, no person would be subject to "slavery [or] involuntary servitude" in the United States and any territory under its jurisdiction.
Then, Section 2 of the amendment gave Congress the executive power to enforce this law by "appropriate legislation." The way I see this is that the authors of this amendment saw that slavery was still carved into the minds of many Americans, and only hate would come of this. Thus, since Congress is the representation of "We the People" the authors were giving the power to enforce a law to us, the people. However, this amendment does not restrict the power of the executive branch; it still has the power to enforce the law. So perhaps the authors of the 13th amendment simply wanted to widen the means by which this potentially dangerous situation could be enforced. It was probably a good thing it turned out that way anyway, since in reality, it was extremely dangerous to be African American.
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Rare Lincoln documents on display at Cornell
(AP) – Oct 16, 2009
ITHACA, N.Y. — Three historic documents that distinguished Abraham Lincoln's presidency will be on rare display at Cornell University.
An original handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address and signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will be part of the exhibit at Cornell's Carl A. Kroch Library.
"Together, these documents determined the direction of the country and shaped its most sacred values," said Katherine Reagan, curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. "It is special to see them in one place."
The Gettysburg Address will be on display only during the first week of the exhibition, which begins Tuesday and runs through April 16, 2010. Cornell last put all three documents on display in 2002 during an exhibit on slavery. Before that, it had been decades since they were shown together.
"Institutions that own original copies often need to limit the amount of total light exposure that these types of national treasures receive. Ink does fade over time. We want these documents to last as long as possible," Reagan said.
The three documents were gifts to the university from Nicholas and Marguerite Lilly Noyes. Noyes, a 1906 graduate, was a former director of the pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly Co.
Lincoln delivered his famous speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery on November 19, 1863. Cornell's is one of five known copies written by Lincoln, and the only one owned by a private institution, Reagan said.
The four other copies are owned by public institutions: two at the Library of Congress, one at the Illinois State Historical Library, and one in the Lincoln Room at the White House.
All five are slightly different. Only Cornell's is accompanied by a letter of transmittal signed by Lincoln. The library also possesses the envelope in which the letter was sent.
Cornell's copy is known as the Bancroft copy, after George Bancroft, the most famous historian of his day.
Bancroft was attending a White House reception and asked Lincoln for a copy on behalf of his stepson, a Union colonel who was collecting manuscripts to include in a lithographed volume that was being sold to raise money for sick and wounded soldiers. Noyes purchased it in 1935 for $50,000, Reagan said.
Cornell's copy of the Emancipation Proclamation is the first formal copy made from the manuscript draft that was sent to the State Department, and signed by Lincoln.
The school's copy of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery is a manuscript copy, handwritten by a secretary and signed by Lincoln and members of Congress.
The exhibition also includes scarce and important photographs of Lincoln; memorabilia from his 1860 and 1864 campaigns; engravings, photographs and programs commemorating his assassination and funeral. There are also rare materials from the Lincoln and Civil War collections of Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson White.








Is this constitutional?

by Zach Ross

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