At the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. The problem was, he did not ask Congress. Congress had not passed a law to free slaves. Meanwhile, some states still had slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment freed the slaves. It became law in late 1865. Three years later the Fourteenth Amendment provided civil rights. Republicans controlled Congress during this period. They wanted to give full citizenship to freed slaves. But they also realized that giving civil rights to blacks, it opened the door for women's suffrage. It would lead to giving women the right to vote, which Congress did not want to do. If only section one was included in the amendment, the wording "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" would include women. For this reason, the word "male" was inserted in section two so the amendment would be approved by Congress.