He thought all
would bear him witness that he had never shrunk from doing all that he
could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an emancipation proclamation. But
that proclamation falls far short of what the amendment will be when
fully consummated. A question might be raised whether the proclamation
was legally valid. It might be urged that it only aided those that came
into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give
themselves up; or that it would have no effect upon the children of
slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet
the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure-all for all the evils. It
winds the whole thing up. He would repeat that it was the fitting, if
not the indispensable, adjunct to the consummation of the great game we
are playing."
Widely divergent views were expressed by able constitutional lawyers as
to what would constitute a valid ratification of the Thirteenth
Amendment; some contending that ratification by three fourths of the
loyal States would be sufficient, others that three fourths of all the
States, whether loyal or insurrectionary, was necessary. Mr. Lincoln, in
a speech on Louisiana reconstruction, while expressing no opinion
against the first proposition, nevertheless declared with great
argumentative force that the latter "would be unquestioned and
unquestionable"; and this view appears to have governed the action of
his successor.
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