Lincoln Signs the Thirteenth Amendment

On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress that submitted the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the state legislatures for ratification. The amendment had cleared the House the previous day after passing the Senate in 1864, and it carried a single, sweeping purpose: to abolish slavery throughout the United States.

Lincoln’s signature was a striking gesture. Presidents have no formal role in the constitutional amendment process, so his approval was legally unnecessary. By signing anyway, he lent the full weight of his office to a measure he had championed, turning a procedural document into a statement of national resolve.

An amendment is the people’s law, not the president’s — yet Lincoln signed it all the same.

The amendment still needed the assent of three-quarters of the states. It would be ratified on December 6, 1865, months after Lincoln’s assassination, finally writing the end of slavery into the Constitution itself.