Joint Resolution of the United States Congress; February 2, 1865

(Duplicate.)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

[image: eagle with shield and ribbon inscribed: E PLURIBUS UNUM]

To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

I certify, That annexed is a true copy of a Joint Resolution of Congress, entitled "A Resolution submitting to the Legis-latures of the several States a Proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States," approved February 1, 1865; the original of which is on file in this Department.—

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In testimony whereof, I, William H. Seward, SECRETARY OF STATE of the UNITED STATES, have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington, this second day of February, A. D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.

William H Seward

[seal] DEPARTMENT OF STATE [/seal]

A Resolution submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a Proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said constitution, namely:

Article XIII.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Approved; February 1, 1865.