Political Quotes

“I thank Congressman Butterfield for yielding to me to talk on this very momentous occasion. I thank him for bringing attention to this issue, the 155th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment. Now, having not listened to all of the discussion before, and I hope I am not too repetitive here, but I want to bring to the attention of all here this evening and our listeners two conflicting events. {time} 1700 Now, we often hear talk of the Emancipation Proclamation. The fact of the matter is, there were two Emancipation Proclamations, the first one freeing the formerly enslaved living in the District of Columbia, and that became effective upon its signing in 1862. The second one, also written in 1862 and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was to become effective January 1, 1863, and that was to free the other enslaved people in the former slave States, which meant that in those States that did not have officially sanctioned slavery but did have slaves, in order for them to be free and in order for the descendants of those from the District of Columbia and those affected by those two proclamations, we needed a constitutional amendment, because as we know, executive orders could very well change with the next executive. So Abraham Lincoln set out to lay the groundwork for the Thirteenth Amendment, and so we are here celebrating the 155th anniversary of that. But we also this week will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of another momentous event.…”