The U.S. Congress passes the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery

On January 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment, sending the measure that would abolish slavery to the states for ratification. The vote was 119 to 56, squeaking past the required two-thirds majority by a margin so thin that the chamber reportedly erupted in cheers when the tally was read.

The path had not been smooth. The Senate had approved the amendment in April 1864, but the House rejected it that summer as Democrats invoked states’ rights. President Abraham Lincoln made passage a plank of his 1864 reelection campaign and lobbied wavering members directly through the lame-duck session.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime… shall exist within the United States.”

The amendment finished what the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation could not: that order had freed enslaved people only in rebelling territory, leaving border states untouched. Ratification by three-fourths of the states was completed on December 6, 1865, making abolition a permanent part of the Constitution.