In solemn observance of the 145th Anniversary of the adoption of the 13th Amendment

The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and prohibited slavery in the country. It provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

The amendment, called the "final constitutional solution to the slavery issue", was drafted by Senator Jacob Merritt Howard (R-Mich) and passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. It was finally ratified on December 6, 1865. However, the Amendment's ratification  went unwitnessed by the one person who labored tirelessly to ensure that the work started by his Emanipation Proclamation would not be overturned in the post war era...President Lincoln...felled by an assassin's bullet 8 months earlier.

Senator Howard was a native of Vermont, who had moved to Detroit and established an illustrious career, where he served as city attorney of Detroit, state Representative, congressman and Michigan attorney general. In Congress, he served as chairman, Committee on Pacific Railroads and  died in Detroit on April 2, 1871; where his memorial  in Elmwood Cemetery bears a quote from the history-making amendment.

There are several great websites on the 13th Amendment