Civil and Human Rights
This Day in Constitutional History: House passes the 13th Amendment
On January 31, 1865, the US House of Representatives voted on and passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
The vote, and the politicking behind it, were recently dramatized in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, now nominated for twelve Academy Awards.
For two takes on the movie, and the “new birth of freedom” that the Reconstruction Amendments represented, see Lincoln’s Perfect Gem by CAC’s David Gans and Remembering Our Forgotten Founders by CAC’s Tom Donnelly.
High res image here.
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