Are you aware that there only 4,400 words in the United States Constitution? You may also want to know that the U. S. Constitution is the oldest and the shortest written constitution of any government in the world.
In addition to giving you my favorite Amendments, I will attempt to give you fascinating facts about the Constitution. Please share those facts with others as we continue the 27 - 67 Constitution Daily Lesson of the Constitution!
On Thursday, I had the honor to be one of the judges for the VFW Post 7721 Essay Writing Contest for the middle school students. The topic for the essay was "What Does Freedom Means to Me" and I had a great time reviewing the 29 and narrowing down to the top 10 and then selecting the top three from the group. Those well written essays left no doubt in my mind that my next favorite to share with you would be Amendment Thirteen (XIII).
Section 1. Neither slaver nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, of any place subject to their jurisdication.
Finally the nation with the Thirteenth Amendment ratified in 1865 attempted to solve the issue of slavery in America after so many failed compromises. Many prayers were answered from my ancestors on December 6, 1865 because on this day the Thirteenth Amendment finally outlawed slavery within the United States of America.
The Articles of Confederation did not provide a solution, major events such as the invention of the cotton gin created the pressure of keeping the balance of power between the North and South. The Westward Expansion attempted with Missouri Compromise (1820) to keep a balance between free and slave states turned out to be yet another failed compromise. Perhaps even more shocking within this compromise was the fact that under the Fugitive Slave Act the federal law even authorized federal agents to detain and return fugitive slaves to the owners.
The nation was starting to drift apart with the issue of slavery when in Dred Scott v. Sanford the Supreme Court ruled Dred Scott and his family and appeared to allow slaveholders to birng slaves into part of the Union. When I am asked why the Thirteen Amendment ranks so high on my list of Amendments it is because it started the process of correcting one of the most damages statement written within our history.
On March 6, 1857 Chief Justice Roger Taney stated that African American, free, or slave, could never be citizens of he United States. The Chief Justice went even further by saying that blacks were "beings of an inferior order" who "had no rights which the white man was bounded to repect."
In my mind, I believe that this was turning point and signal that our Constitution got it right and began to fulfill the Declaration of Independence's promise that "all men are created equal."
You have now been provided with some facts about the Constitution, short history lesson, and a justification of why Amednment XIII is on the top of my list of favorite Amendments.
Joseph
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