16th Amendment
Income Tax
17th Amendment
Popular Election of Senators
18th Amendment
Prohibition of Liquor
19th Amendment
Women’s Right to Vote
20th Amendment
Presidential Term and Succession, Assembly of Congress
21st Amendment
Repeal of Prohibition
22nd Amendment
Two-Term Limit on Presidency
23rd Amendment
Presidential Vote for D.C.
24th Amendment
Abolition of Poll Taxes
25th Amendment
Presidential Disability and Succession
26th Amendment
Right to Vote at Age 18
27th Amendment
Congressional Compensation
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
In 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Nonetheless, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation since it only applied to areas of the Confederacy currently in a state of rebellion (and not even to the loyal “border states” that remained in the Union). Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
The 13th Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union, and should have easily passed in Congress. However, though the Senate passed it in April 1864, the House initially did not. At that point, Lincoln took an active role to ensure passage through Congress. He insisted that passage of the 13th Amendment be added to the Republican Party platform for the upcoming 1864 Presidential election. His efforts met with success when the House passed the bill in January 1865 with a vote of 119–56.
On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states (three-fourths) ratified it by December 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution 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."
With the adoption of the 13th Amendment, the United States found a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery. The 13th Amendment, along with the 14th and 15th, is one of the trio of Civil War amendments that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans.
In keeping with Texas' dramatic history, the Texas Constitution has gone through several different versions. Below is a brief timeline of the various Constitutions and their importance in the overall constitutional history of Texas. Each entry includes links to the text of that version and to its Handbook of Texas article.
1836: Texas Declaration of Independence & Constitution of the Republic of Texas
This was the first governing document of the Republic of Texas after it won independence from Mexico. It was a very short document based heavily on the U.S. Constitution. It was never amended and was in effect for only a few years before Texas joined the United States.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1836 Constitution
1845: First State Constitution
Upon joining the United States, Texas redrafted its Constitution completely. It became longer and more detailed, although it was still nowhere near the length it would eventually become. This Constitution is notable mainly for creating Texas' free public school system and school funding system.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1845 Constitution
1861: Confederate Constitution
When Texas seceded from the Union, it adopted this Constitution. The changes from the 1845 Constitution were minimal and consisted mainly of revising terminology to reflect Texas' membership in the Confederacy.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1861 Constitution
1866: Post-War Constitution
This temporary constitution was adopted immediately after the end of the Civil War when Texas was under the jurisdiction of the federal government. This Constitution was not intended to be the final governing document of the State; it was a placeholder meant to quickly get rid of the Confederate constitution and implement the requirements of Reconstruction. As such, its main effects were to abolish slavery and grant civil rights to African-Americans. It also for the first time gave the governor the power to exercise a line-item veto over budget provisions.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1866 Constitution
1869: Reconstruction Constitution
This Constitution is notable for never actually being completed or adopted by the Legislature. After the Constitutional Convention failed to agree on a final draft, the federal military forces occupying Texas took over and pieced together a Constitution from the various proposed articles. This is the version that was ratified by the public. This Constitution is notable for more explicitly abolishing slavery and guaranteeing civil rights to all citizens, in compliance with the Reconstruction Acts passed by Congress. However, it also included several provisions that greatly upset many Texans and paved the way for the next Constitution. Most notably, it stripped voting rights from former Confederate officers and vested immense power in government officials, especially the governor.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1869 Constitution
1876: Current Constitution
In reaction to the perceived abuses of the 1869 Constitution, the 1876 Constitution established the pattern of a long, restrictive document intended to act as a check on state government power. It substantially restricted the governor's powers and went into great detail on many relatively minor issues. This excessive detail was intended to prevent state officials from taking advantage of vague language in order to usurp local governance. It also created the state's unusual double supreme court system. This Constitution, in greatly amended form, is still in effect today.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1876 Constitution
1974: Proposed Constitution
In 1974, a Constitutional Convention was held in order to modernize and streamline the 1876 Constitution, which was viewed as cumbersome and outdated. However, the proposed revision failed by only 3 votes and was never submitted to the voters. The Legislature attempted to incorporate some proposals via constitutional amendments the next year, but all eight proposed amendments were defeated. Although the process did not result in a new constitution, it did leave a lasting legacy in the form of a trove of valuable research materials for constitutional scholars and historians.
Handbook of Texas article on the 1974 Constitutional Convention
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Texas' statutes have a long, complicated publication history. This might not seem like something the modern researcher should worry about, but when you come across a situation where you need to know a law's history, it's crucial to understand where you can find that information. This timeline will take users through a brief history of the various versions of the statutes. It also includes links to each item online, if available.
Pre-1879: Private Publishers
During the early days of Texas, no official version of the statutes was available, so private companies stepped up with digests and unofficial compilations.
Paschal's Digest, 1866-1878
Paschal's was the first really useful Texas digest. It was heavily used by lawyers and judges and is cited frequently in early cases, usually as "P.D". The Digest was a major influence on the development of the first official published statutes in 1879.
Gammell's Laws of Texas, 1822-1897
In addition to statutes, Gammell's includes legal analyses, governing documents, journals, and colonization and statehood materials.
Sayles' Early Laws of Texas, 1731-1879
A great historical resource. It includes Spanish, Mexican and early civil law, as well as much of the same material that's found in Gammell's. It's especially useful for land title and boundary research.
Sayles' Revised Civil Statutes, 1888-1922
Even though Texas began publishing its statutes in 1879, the official compilations were not updated often enough to keep up with all the new laws that were passed. Published in 1888, 1889, 1897, 1898 & 1914, with supplements through 1922, these Sayles volumes fill in the gaps between 1879-1911 and 1911-1925.
1854-1879: First Publication
In 1854, the Texas Legislature officially approved a project to codify the state's laws in print. The project drew heavily from Paschal's Digest.
In 1856, the Penal Code & the Code of Criminal Procedure were officially codified. These are often cited as the Old Code, or "O.C.".
In 1879, the Civil Statutes were officially codified. There were no topical codes, just an alphabetical listing of statutes with little internal organization. There were no case notes or annotations other than some basic history for some, but not all, laws.
1895, 1911 & 1925: Recompilations
New versions of the statutes were published in 1895 and 1911, recompiling the existing statutes and incorporating the laws passed since the previous recompilation. The organization and annotations remained the same.
The 1925 recompilation was the final version published by the state. That same year, Vernon's Revised Texas Statutes began publication, and the Legislature soon gave them approval to publish their statutes as the official version. From then on, the statutes were published by private publishers with the permission of the state.
1925-1960s
Vernon's Revised Texas Statutes continued its publication throughout this period. Full recompilations were printed in 1936 and 1948, supplemented every two years with non-cumulative volumes. However, the constant expansion of the statutes and the 1925 revision's numbering scheme made it hard to add sections, resulting in an increasingly cumbersome and obtuse publication. While the statutes were arranged alphabetically by subject - a definite improvement over the official codes' largely random arrangement - they were still hard to use due to the organizational structure and the need to check multiple volumes for updating. By the end of the 1960s, there was general agreement in the legal community that a change was needed.
1963: Code Revision
In 1963, the Legislature created the Office of the Code Revisor, a legislative agency charged with reviewing all of the existing statutes, dividing them into topical codes, and publishing these revisions as bills. The bills were then approved by the Legislature and published as Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated. The Code Revisor was also given a mandate to clean up the statutes' numbering and organizational system, including leaving adequate room for expansion, as well as revise the statutory language to remove and update outdated terminology. The revision was to be nonsubstantive, meaning that any changes could not affect the meaning or application of the statute. This was a massive project - over 50 years later, it is still going on, although it is largely complete and is now focusing on minor revisions.
1960s-present
The revised codes are published as Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated (also known as the "black statutes" because of the color of their binding). The not-yet-codified statutes are still published as Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, but only a few volumes are left, which are being phased out as the recodification project is completed.
Online versions of the codes up through 1984 can be viewed online here.