Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/338

 274 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such per sons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it.&quot; This time congress acted with alacrity, and on January 31, 1865, proposed to the states the 13th amendment to the constitution, pro viding that neither slavery nor involuntary servi tude, except as a punishment for crime, w r here the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. The states rapidly adopted the amendment by the action of their legislatures, and the president was especially pleased that his own state of Illinois led the van, having passed the neces sary resolution within twenty-four hours. Before the year ended twenty-seven of the thirty-six states (being the necessary three fourths) had ratified the amendment, and President Johnson, on December 18, 1865, officially proclaimed its adoption. While the energies of the government and of the people were most strenuously occupied with the war and the questions immediately concerning it, the four years of Mr. Lincoln s administration had their full share of complicated and difficult ques tions of domestic and foreign concern. The interior and post-office departments made great progress in developing the means of communication through out the country. Mr. Chase, as secretary of the treasury, performed, with prodigious ability and