Tenure of Office Act
March 2, 1867 Following President Abraham Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. Johnson chose to keep Edwin McMasters Stanton as Secretary of War. Following President Abraham Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. Johnson chose to keep Edwin McMasters Stanton as Secretary…
Thirteenth Amendment
1865 Approved by Congress on January 31, 1865 and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished the practice of slavery except as a punishment for crime in the United States and bestowed Congress with broad powers to ensure the amendment's enforcement. At its inception, the American Civil War was portrayed…
Transcription of Letter from Ephraim S. Weaver to Samuel and Mary Weaver
October 4, 1863 On October 4, 1863, Private Ephraim S. Weaver, a member of Co. K, 68th Regiment, OVI, wrote to his parents, Samuel and Mary Weaver, from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg Waren County Mississippi ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Oct 4th 1863 Father and Mother;;;;;; Again I am permited to answer yours of the 20th Sept; Which came to…
Virginia Resolutions
December 24, 1798 Drafted by James Madison and adopted by the Virginia General Assembly on December 24, 1798, the Virginia Resolutions asserted that, collectively, the states have the right to interpose when the federal government exceeds its constitutional authority. Between June 18 and July 25, 1798, the fifth United States Congress enacted four bills collectively…
Wade-Davis Bill
1864 Co-authored by Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade and Maryland Congressman Henry Winter Davis in 1864, the Wade-Davis Bill was an attempt to impose harsh Reconstruction terms on the South, which President Lincoln pocket vetoed. Union fortunes on the battlefield were not faring well at the beginning of 1863. Forces in the West had won hard-fought…
William H. SewardSenate “Higher Law” Speech on the Compromise of 1850 (Transcript)
March 11, 1850 Transcript of William H. Seward's "Higher Law" speech on the Compromise of 1850, delivered on the U.S. Senate floor on March 11, 1850. I mean to say that Congress can hereafter decide whether any states, slave or free, can be framed out of Texas. If they should never be framed out of…
Wilmot Proviso
1846 Introduced by Congressman David Wilmot, but never enacted, the Wilmot Proviso would have banned the spread of slavery into territories Mexico ceded to the U. S. after the Mexican-American War. The U.S. Constitution and Slavery When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1787, one of the more daunting tasks that they…