What are you reading now?

[Thomas Thorne]

I finished the Michael Vorenberg Book "Final Freedom' I previously mentioned in #110 on Sat 12/1. Of 73 house Democrats. 50 voted against rarification.15 voted for it and 8 were absent. Only Democrats were absent from the House that day. If 4 of them had shown up and voted no, the amendment would have failed. But this assumes no else would have switched their vote

The fact that only Democrats and such a high percentage of them were absent that day tells me the fix was in. The Democratic Party was violently split between War Democrats who blamed their Southern brethren for the War and Peace Democrats who detested Lincoln and all his works. An interesting subtext was the belief that an abolition amendment was the best means to forestall subsequent Republican attempts to pass Civil Rights amendments and laws.

Vorenberg does not mention Mary Lincoln being in the house gallery on the day of the vote. He does mention other visitors including Cabinet members and Supreme Ct justices.

Petitions to Congress for the abolition of slavery followed the social custom of the age. Signatures of women were separated from the signatures of men on the same petition.
Tom