On Jan. 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. Eleven months later on Nov. 19, at the Gettysburg battleground, Lincoln dedicated the Union lives lost to the vindication of the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness made four score and seven years before. But the war continued. Two and half years later, on June 19, 1865, Union Army General George Granger declared that the quarter-million slaves in Texas were now free. Congress had on Jan. 31 passed the 13th Amendment: "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." Ratified on Dec. 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment was soon followed by the 14th and 15th amendments promising equal protection and the right to vote regardless of race.