President Lincoln and other Republicans had been…

President Lincoln and other Republicans had been concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation, which in 1863 had declared the freedom of slaves in ten Confederate states then in rebellion, would be seen as a temporary war measure, since it was solely based on Lincoln's war powers.

The Proclamation had not freed any slaves in the border states nor itself made slavery illegal.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude ... shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864 and by the House on January 31, 1865, it had been adopted on December 6, 1865.

On December 18, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaims it to have been declared ratified by three-quarters of the states.

It is the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted after the American Civil War.