Facts can be inconvenient, they can refute the comfy box in which we live. But facts are facts, like the speed of light.
A fact is provable. It is not opinion. It does not care if it makes you uncomfortable or refutes your senior thesis in high school. It just is.
In a matter such as the removal of the Original 13th Amendment from public view the best evidence is documentation that shows it as having been public knowledge, widely accepted and referred to, at the time. That evidence exists.
Here are examples of books printed between 1819 and 1867. All include the text for the 13th Amendment as reproduced above. The text is identical in each case. Clearly, since the 13th Amendment now referred to was passed by the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 31st day of January, 1865, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 18th of December of that same year, this is not an oversight.
(After writing this article I was contacted by an individual who referred me to a site that quotes extensively from, "
Legislative Extracts Relative to Amendment Of The
Constitution of the United States of America
Commonwealth of Virginia
1810 to 1819
The ongoing dialogue on the adoption of the 13th Amendment makes the chain of logic involved very clear and answers the questions as to why the Amendment was adopted. The rejection of a society that enforced classes through titles of nobility began much earlier in American history, in fact was at the foundation of the settlement of the New England colonies. The Leveler traditions had added to the ongoing issues on the relationship of the individual with God, resulting in radical changes in the Puritan dogma from the time of the first generation of settlement until the Revolution. The underlying theme of individual rights, granted by God has always been the spiritual awareness that all humanity are One, making divisions based on class the antithesis of American philosophy. Furthermore, the British had burned Washington D. C. and the White House. That, and their influence in monetary matters concerned the many individuals who had now fought two wars for their freedom.
That leaves fewer questions to be answered.
The Original 13th Amendment is explained through contemporary events and through the words of those who voted it into law.
Was there a 13th Amendment passed soon after the Constitution was ratified? A The evidence is an irrefutable Yes. The original 13th Amendment appears in all copies of the Constitution for The United States of America printed between 1819 and 1867. After that date the 13th Amendment referred to in all copies of the US Constitution printed previously is replaced with no explanation with the very different 13th Amendment passed in 1867, which refers to slavery.
The reasons for which the amendment was passed are also in evidence.
You cannot lawfully expunge part of the Constitution. The Original 13th Amendment was never rescinded. It is therefore still in force. This leads to the interesting question of what to do with the present Congress, which is almost entirely composed of attorneys who are members of the BAR and therefore are not citizens of the United States. That is a question to be taken up in short order, but not right now. )
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