Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an important day in American history. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the 147th anniversary of the abolition of that regrettable institution of slavery. On 6 December 1865, the State of Georgia became the 27th State to ratify the 13th Amendment, marking the three-fourths supermajority necessary to amend the Constitution. The 13th Amendment accomplished something that the Emancipation Proclamation did not and perhaps could not do. It declared the nonexistence of slavery in the whole of the ``United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.'' The triumph the 13th Amendment represents not just for African Americans but for all Americans should be celebrated every December 6. [From the Raleigh News & Observer, Dec. 5, 2012] THE DAY SLAVERY OFFICIALLY ENDED (By James A. Wynn Jr.) The movie ``Lincoln'' highlights the struggle over the passage and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, the historic proviso that officially ended slavery in America. The triumph that the Thirteenth Amendment represents--not just for African-Americans but for all Americans--should be celebrated, and we should celebrate it tomorrow, December 6. No amendment has a greater or simpler declarative force than the Thirteenth. It states uncompromisingly that ``Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States.'' The amendment also empowered Congress to enact laws to enforce its substantive protections.…”