SJ0026 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SJ0026 LRB101 10261 JWD 55366 r

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, On February 27, 1861, in an attempt to avert the secession of Southern states, United States Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio proposed an amendment to the United States Constitution that would prohibit the United States Constitution from being amended in a manner that authorizes Congress to abolish or interfere with the states' domestic institutions, including slavery; and

WHEREAS, On March 2, 1861, the Corwin Amendment was approved by a joint resolution of the United States Congress (12 Stat. 251) and was submitted to the states for ratification; and

WHEREAS, The Twenty-Third General Assembly ratified the Corwin Amendment in "An Act ratifying a certain amendment to the Constitution of the United States", in force June 2, 1863 (Public Laws 1863, p. 41); and

WHEREAS, The Corwin Amendment was not ratified by three-fourths of the states and, therefore, is not part of the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, With the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the purposes of the Corwin Amendment have become moot; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING HEREIN, That the State of Illinois rescinds its ratification of the following proposition, known as the Corwin Amendment to the United States Constitution:

"ARTICLE XIII. 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."; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a certified copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Archivist of the United States, the President of the United States, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the Illinois congressional delegation.