As Mr. Lincoln mentioned with just pride, Illinois was the first State to ratify the amendment.  On December 18, 1865, Mr. Seward, who remained as Secretary of State in the cabinet of President Johnson, made official proclamation that the legislatures of twenty-seven States, constituting three fourths of the thirty-six States of the Union, had ratified the amendment, and that it had become valid as a part of the Constitution.  Four of the States constituting this number—­Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas—­were those whose reconstruction had been effected under the direction of President Lincoln.  Six more States subsequently ratified the amendment, Texas ending the list in February, 1870.

The profound political transformation which the American Republic had undergone can perhaps best be measured by contrasting the two constitutional amendments which Congress made it the duty of the Lincoln administration to submit officially to the States.  The first, signed by President Buchanan as one of his last official acts, and accepted and indorsed by Lincoln in his inaugural address, was in these words: 

“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 said State.”

Between Lincoln’s inauguration and the outbreak of war, the Department of State transmitted this amendment to the several States for their action; and had the South shown a willingness to desist from secession and accept it as a peace offering, there is little doubt that it would have become a part of the Constitution.  But the thunder of Beauregard’s guns drove away all possibility of such a ratification, and within four years the Lincoln administration sent forth the amendment of 1865, sweeping out of existence by one sentence the institution to which it had in its first proposal offered a virtual claim to perpetual recognition and tolerance.  The “new birth of freedom” which Lincoln invoked for the nation in his Gettysburg address, was accomplished.

The closing paragraphs of President Lincoln’s message to Congress of December 6, 1864, were devoted to a summing up of the existing situation.  The verdict of the ballot-box had not only decided the continuance of a war administration and war policy, but renewed the assurance of a public sentiment to sustain its prosecution.  Inspired by this majestic manifestation of the popular will, he was able to speak of the future with hope and confidence.  But with characteristic prudence and good taste, he uttered no word of boasting, and indulged in no syllable of acrimony; on the contrary, in terms of fatherly kindness he again offered the rebellious States the generous conditions he had previously tendered them.