Interview Transcript
I interviewed Walter Stahr, author of Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man.
Why did Lincoln feel such urgency to pass the 13th Amendment?
"Lincoln was worried that his Emancipation Proclamation would be limited or reversed by the courts. He based the proclamation on his 'war powers' as 'commander in chief,' but those powers had never been interpreted by the federal courts; much less used for such a dramatic and radical change. A constitutional amendment, he said, would be a 'King's cure,' ending any legal questions once and for all." What role did Seward play in passing the amendment? "Lincoln knew that Seward knew how to get laws passed on Capitol Hill: after all Seward had been a Senator for twelve years. Lincoln also knew that many of the votes would have to come from New York: the largest state at the time, and Seward's home state. And he knew that although Seward was a Republican, that he knew many Democrats, and knew lobbyists who could help persuade those Democrats to vote for the amendment. Seward hired lobbyists to work for the amendment, and those lobbyists put pressure on congressmen to vote 'yes.' The lobbyists may have bribed congressmen; one of them wrote to Seward that he was confident the amendment would pass because 'money will certainly do it if patriotism fails.'" Without the 13th Amendment, what would the United States be like today? "Even without the Thirteenth Amendment, the United States would surely, at some point, have abolished slavery. But the process might have taken longer and been more violent. If for example the House did not approve the amendment in early 1865, it probably would not have approved it until 1866 or 1867, when there were larger Republican majorities. And then persuading the states, especially southern states, to ratify it might have taken longer. And during that time there could well have been even more black-white violence in the South than there was in fact." |
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