PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — A Missouri man drafted and introduced the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery.

It happened on this date (January 11) in 1864.

John Brooks Henderson was a Pike County attorney who had been appointed to the U.S. Senate two years earlier. Within six weeks of arriving in Washington, he was meeting regularly with President Abraham Lincoln.

As with the president, Henderson’s views on emancipation evolved. Abolitionists finally decided that a constitutional amendment codifying freedom was the only way to ensure their goal.

Convincing lawmakers to change the Constitution was almost as difficult for Henderson as trying to assure them that slavery’s time was past. It had been almost 60 years since the 12th Amendment.

Henderson got the job done by overcoming states’ rights arguments and objections from those who thought the founders intended the Constitution to stand as written. He believed the 13th Amendment would be a starting point toward healing the nation from the Civil War.

The final draft was approved by the Senate in April 1864 and by the House in January 1865. Illinois became the first state to ratify it, and Missouri did so five days later.

Henderson went on to support freedoms offered by the 14th and 15th Amendments, campaign for women’s voting rights, deal with Native American affairs and prosecute federal tax evaders. In 1868, he was one of seven Republicans who voted against impeaching Democrat President Andrew Johnson.

Henderson died at 86 in 1913.

Though he didn’t hold political office after leaving the Senate in 1869, Henderson remained confident in the American people and their right to choose leaders who endorsed freedom over tyranny.

“If you commit errors, or outrage public sentiment, I want no other revolution than the right of the ballot box,” he said. “With the Constitution unimpaired, we may yet appeal to the popular heart for the approval of right and the redress of wrong.”