William H. Seward, Secretary of State, fraudulently proclaims the 13th amendment abolishing slavery throughout the compulsory Union has been ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the State legislatures. 

       NOTES:

• Four of those States were former confederate States which had ratified the amendment under duress.
• This was the first amendment to expand the power of the federal government at the expense of the States and WE THE PEOPLE, by containing a “self-executing clause”: “Congress shall have the power… .”
• George P. Fletcher, Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia University School of Law, cites the three “Reconstruction Amendments” as the “Secret Constitution” which values equality over freedom, derives its authority from the nation instead of WE THE PEOPLE, and governs as a democracy instead of a republic.
• In truth the amendment only ended slavery two States: Delaware and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Slavery had already been abolished,
  • in the federal enclaves by the Territorial Freedom Act of 1862;
  • in the District of Columbia by the District of Columbia Emancipation Act of 1862;
  • in the Confederate States (a voluntary union) by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863;
  • in Maryland by its State Constitution of 1864;
  • in Missouri by its State Constitution of 1865;
  • in Tennessee by an 1865 amendment to its State Constitution;
  • in the Virginia enclave of West Virginia by an 1865 amendment to its “state” Constitution;
  • and most importantly by slaves freeing themselves.

       [updated 1/21/2022]