It appears to me that the text "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" can equally well be taken to refer to "slavery and involuntary servitude" and to "involuntary servitude" alone. Historically this exception appears to have been used in order to allow prison work, which surely falls under the rubric of "involuntary servitude" rather than slavery. Moreover, the Supreme Court has established many times that the amendment "abolishes slavery" in no uncertain terms. Some of the quotes are here: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/constitution/amdt13.html Therefore, I think it justified to simply say that the amendment abolishes slavery.
Comments? --AV
I hadn't thought of the other interpretation. Too bad they didn't have wikipedians around to say "but hey, it could have this second unintended meaning too." --KQ
I would like to see a list of failed ammendments -- proposed ammendments which were proposed by Congress but never recieved the requisite number of ratifications from the states. The second extra ammendment contained in the Bill of Rights would be one important one (I keep on hearing it mentioned, but never what it said). Another quite important one would be the Equal Rights Ammendment. I'd probably forget about ammendments which failed at the stage of Congress though -- simply because there are thousands of them (ammendments to abolish the electoral college, to reinstitute official prayers in public schools, etc.) -- SJK
Failed ammendments - http://www.usconstitution.net/constam.html#process
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