Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1865-12-22
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMgNDMENT
RATIFIED.


The Amendment prohibiting slavery or
involuntary servItude except as punish
ment for crime, is now part of the Con-
stitution of the United States, having been
ratified by three-fourths of the States and
official proclamation of the fact made by
the Secretary of State of the United States.
Freedom now reigns, in fact and in law,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the
Aroostook to the Rio Grande. The follow
ing is the official proclamation of the great
fact:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE
OF THE UNITED STATES.
To all whom these presents may come,
Greeting. fff EfIt Z
Kasog ye, That whereas the Congress
of the United States, ON the LIST ofFebru-
airy last, passed resolution, which is in
the words following, namely:
ga resolution submitting to the Legis-
latures of tho several States a proposition
to amend the Constitution of the United
States"
aResolred, By the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, two-thirds
of both Houses concurring, that the follow
ing article be proposedto 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 in
tents and purposes as a part of said Con
stitution, namely:
''Article XIII.
sSEcTIoN 1. Neither Slavery nor inyol-
untary seryitude, except as punishment
for crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist in the I'm
tied States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
"SEcTIoN 2. Congress shall have pow
er to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation"
And, Uhereas it appears from official
documents on the file in this Department,
that the Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States proposed as aforesaid,
has been ratified by the Legislators of the
States of Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan,
Maryland, New York, West Virgian,
Maine, Kansas, Massachusetts,, Pennsylva-
MIA, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada,
Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Vermont, Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecti-
cut, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Al
ALBANIA, North Carolina and Georgia, in
all 27 States:
And whereas, the whole number of
States in the United States is SO.
And, s0hereas, the before specially
named States, whose legislatures have rat
flied the said proposed amendment con-
stitute three-fourths of the whole number
of States in the United States:
Now, therefore, be it known that l,
William H. Seward, Secretary of State OF
the United States, by virtue and in pursu-
ance of the second section of the Act OF
Congress approved the goth of April,
1S48, entitled can Act to provide for the
publication of the laws of the United
States and for other purposes" do hereby
certify that the amendment aforesaid has
become valid to all intents and purposes
as part of the Constitution of the United
States.
In testimony whereof I have hereuntc
set my hand and caused the seal of the
Department of State to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this
18th day of December, in the year of oul
Lord 1865, and of the Independence Of
the United States of America the Goth.
WIN. H. SEWARD, Sec'y of State.