Balkinization  

Thursday, February 26, 2004

JB

Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment

Josh Chafetz gets the Lincoln story a bit wrong:

Anecdote: The Thirteenth Amendment was accidentally sent to the White House after having been passed by the requisite two-thirds majority in both Houses of Congress. President Lincoln, apparently unthinkingly, signed it. The Senate, at the behest of Senator Lyman Trumbull, later passed a resolution pointing out that the President's signature had been unnecessary.

As noted below, Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment not by accident but as a deeply symbolic act: in part to show his strong support of the Amendment, and in part as a symbolic response to James Buchanan's signature of the Corwin Amendment, which was never ratified.


UPDATE: Apparently, Josh is planning to study at Yale. This is very good news for us; we can always use another smart blogger.




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