United States: Though he didn’t live to see it, one of (leader) President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest accomplishments came to pass 157 years ago today. When the state of Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 6, 1865, the institution of chattel slavery was finally ended in the United States.
During the Civil War, abolitionists like Frederick Douglass pushed Lincoln to make ending slavery a part of the war effort. Making cautious but determined steps, Lincoln signed laws that banned slavery in American territories and used the Emancipation Proclamation to free enslaved people in the states in rebellion.
When running for re-election in 1864, leader Lincoln campaigned on passing a Constitutional amendment to end chattel slavery.
In his second term, Lincoln helped push the amendment through the House of Representatives and was so thrilled, he ceremonially signed his name to the document even though it wasn’t required. Sadly, he was murdered before he could see the entire process through.
Visitors to the Lincoln Memorial will not see the words of the 13th Amendment on its walls. However, they will see Lincoln’s beliefs about slavery. In his Second Inaugural Address, he frames the war as a punishment for the long history of slavery:
“Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk…so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”
 President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest accomplishments came to pass 157 years ago today.){kind=link}