Signed Transmittal letter, 16 March 1861, from President Abraham Lincoln to Governor John W. Ellis, with original Thirteenth Amendment

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Title

Signed Transmittal letter, 16 March 1861, from President Abraham Lincoln to Governor John W. Ellis, with original Thirteenth Amendment

Date

March 16 1861

Creator

["Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865."]

Place

["Washington, District of Columbia, United States","Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, United States"]

Local Call Number

VC.32

Document Details
Image Details

Document Details

Title

Signed Transmittal letter, 16 March 1861, from President Abraham Lincoln to Governor John W. Ellis, with original Thirteenth Amendment

Date

March 16 1861

Creator

["Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865."]

Rights

All rights held by the State Archives of NC. Permission to publish must be obtained from the registrar in writing.

Description

Signed transmittal letter, March 16, 1861, from Abraham Lincoln to Governor John W. Ellis, with the original Thirteenth Amendment, and Secretary Wm. H. Seward transmittal document. The cover letter signed by Lincoln accompanied a copy of the originally proposed Thirteenth Amendment that was approved by the United States Congress on March 2, 1861. This earlier proposed Thirteenth Amendment was an effort at a compromise to head off impending civil war. This proposed amendment provided that “no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of the said State.” Included with the cover letter and proposed amendment was also a transmittal statement of document’s authenticity signed by Secretary of State William H. Seward, March 13, 1861. These documents and their importance and rarity were brought to the attention of the State Archivist of North Carolina in October 2006, by representatives of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln (co-project of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the University of Illinois-Springfield) on a visit to the North Carolina State Archives during their survey of Lincoln documents in the various American states. These documents were originally filed in the Governor John W. Ellis Papers [G.P.150, folder “March 1861”]. They were transferred to the Vault Collection on April 20, 2007. The cover letter is signed by President Abraham Lincoln using his full name “Abraham Lincoln”| Secretary of State Seward signed the transmittal document. The three documents (a total of four pages) include: the cover letter, dated March 16, 1861, signed by Abraham Lincoln| the transmittal document signed by Secretary of State Seward, signed March 13, 1861| and the text of the proposed amendment, dated March 2, 1861.

Subject

["Slavery--United States--History--19th century","United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865","Presidents--United States","Slavery--Law and legislation--United States--History","United States--Politics and government--1861-1865","Constitutional amendments--United States","North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865","North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865","African American men","Enslaved persons--Emancipation--United States","African American children","African American women","Slavery--Political aspects--United States--History--19th century","African Americans"]

Index Terms

Ellis, John Willis, 1820-1861|Seward, William Henry, 1801-1872

Local Call Number

VC.32

Place

["Washington, District of Columbia, United States","Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, United States"]

Time Period

["(1860-1876) Civil War and Reconstruction"]

Digital Collections

["Treasures"]

Source Collections

["Vault Collection. State Archives of North Carolina"]

Format

["Letters (Correspondence)"]

Hosted By

["State Archives of North Carolina"]

Identifier

VC_32_Abraham_Lincoln_to_Governor_Ellis

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