2/28/1861
The United States Congress wrote and passed the Thirteenth Amendment, also known as the Corwin Slavery Amendment. In a remarkable attempt to keep Southern States from leaving the Union, this 13th Amendment to the Constitution, was whittled out of the Crittenden Compromise of the second session of the Thirty-sixth Congress.
It would legalize slavery everywhere in the Union.
It was submitted to both houses of Congress on February 28, immediately approved, and submitted to the states for ratification on March 9, 1861.
Newly inaugurated President Lincoln signed the document’s letter of introduction to the state governors, and asked for their approval.
Lincoln's involvement in this constitutional amendment extended far beyond simply endorsing it, which he did in his inauguration speech and letters to the governors.
Lincoln himself was the motivation behind its introduction in committee several months earlier, as was indicated by the senator who introduced it, William Seward.
Seward introduced the measure after being informed of it by Thurlow Weed, who conveyed it as a message from Lincoln. Following the proposal's introduction, Seward wrote to Lincoln to inform him of the result of his suggestion.
The following letter was documentation of that fact:
Letter from William Seward to Abraham Lincoln
Washington Dec. 26, 1860.
My Dear Sir,
Having been hurried away from home by information that my attendance here on Monday would be necessary, I had only the opportunity for conferring with Mr. Weed which was afforded by our journey together on the rail road from Syracuse to Albany.
He gave me verbally the substance of the suggestion you proposed for the consideration of the Republican members, but not the written proposition. This morning I received the latter from him and also information for the first time of your expectation that I would write to you concerning the temper of parties and the public here.
I met on Monday my Republican associates of the Committee of Thirteen, and afterwards the whole committee. With the unanimous consent of our section I offered three propositions which seemed to me to cover the ground of the suggestion made by you through Mr. Weed as I understood it.
First, that the Constitution should never be altered so as to authorize Congress to abolish or interfere with slavery in the states. This was accepted….
Thus, it is clear that William Seward first introduced the measure in committee at Lincoln's bidding.
Lincoln personally pushed the slavery amendment through congress. When he had arrived in Washington and just before his own inauguration, he immediately met with its House sponsor Thomas Corwin to devise a plan to get it through. The two met, decided to go with the original language of Seward's Senate proposal, and push the legislation through the House floor.
The New York Tribune reported at the end of the month that Lincoln was personally urging undecided congressmen to support the amendment.
As to his role in passing the amendment, eyewitness Henry Adams had the following to say in late March 1861:
“On the very morning of the 4th of March, the Senate passed the Amendment to the Constitution by exactly the necessary vote; and even then it was said in Washington that some careful manipulation, as well as the direct influence of the new President, was needed before this measure, so utterly innocent and unobjectionable, could be passed.”
Well before his inauguration, Lincoln was engaging in political maneuvering to frame the secession crisis in a way he saw as favorable to his own cause. His support of the measure was cited as the main reason for its success.
Finally, with Lincoln’s influence, the Corwin Amendment got through the United States Congress, and Lincoln endorsed it in his inaugural address on the 4th of March.
Three pieces of information come from this:
1. Lincoln was very interested in preventing secession, but not the eradication of slavery.
2. Once secession occurred, he used the issue of slavery to then blame the South...this despite his disregard of its existance via his support of the Corwin amendment.
3. The emancipation proclamation was important only as a tactical war tool and to rationalize the deaths of 750,000 people because of Union war actions.
This film should be flushed.
Well done. I will save this post.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”—John Adams
The North launched the Civil War because it was judged to be in its economic best interest to do so. Everything else is mythmaking.
That is not true.
The Corwin Amendment stated that Congress could make no laws interfering w/ the domestic relations, ie servitude, w/i any state. In those states where slavery was illegal, it would remain illegal.
Its only trope to slavery was to re-inforce the Dred Scott Fugitive Slave Law, which Lincoln openly recognized as constitutional law.
The remainder of your post, while more or less accurate, is distorted by this untruth.
The Crittenden Compromise related to the expansion of slavery into the new territories opening in the west, primarily by extending the line established by the Missouri Compromise. Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories. In any case, none of the 6 articles of compromise entertained the universal application of slavery.
What this episode actually demonstrates more than anything else was Lincoln's desparate attempt to prevent the coming war. By moving, or so he thought, slavery off the table he hoped to diffuse the secessionist movement.
Alas, the southern firebrands were intent upon secession and if necessary, war.
Sources:
Miller, WL, "Lincoln's Virtues", Vintage, 2002, p. 435
Donald, DH, "Lincoln", Simon Schuster, 1995, p.268
Barrett, JH, "Life, Speeches, and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln", Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865, p. 200