It was, in fact, a real possibility. Lincoln announced in his inaugural address that he would agree to the "Corwin Amendment." The Corwin Amendment would have made it virtually impossible to eliminate slavery before the 20th century.
No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.
But this is a part of history that they refuse to tell people about.
DiogenesLamp: "It was, in fact, a real possibility.
Lincoln announced in his inaugural address that he would agree to the "Corwin Amendment."
The Corwin Amendment would have made it virtually impossible to eliminate slavery before the 20th century."
Or even in the 20th century, except it was unconstitutional.
While DiogenesLamp often weaponizes the 1861 proposed Corwin Amendment to demonstrate that wicked Northerners supported slavery while saintly Southerners did something else, the fact is Ohio Representative Thomas Corwin responded to the new pro-slavery Confederate Constitution by offering reassurances to Border States like Kentucky and Maryland, that the Federal Government would not attack their "peculiar institution."
And Lincoln is alleged to have supported the amendment, but in fact Lincoln's view was: such an amendment was unnecessary because it was already implied by existing laws.
That's because Lincoln had not run for office on a platform to abolish slavery, only to restrict it from US territories and Northern states.
But that was enough anti-slavery for Southern Fire Eaters to declare their secession and Confederacy.
Ohio Representative Corwin's Amendment was intended to keep Border States in the Union, and it did help succeed in that.
But in the end it was ratified by only two Border States and three others, one of questionable validity and another quickly rescinded.
But the biggest problem with Corwin's amendment was its utter unconstitutionality -- it attempted to dictate what future amendments could, or could not, be passed & ratified and that is simply not possible.
Nobody can bind the future in that way.
Corwin's was clearly an act of desperation (one of several), to preserve as much as possible of the remaining union by providing reassurances to Border States that their "peculiar institution" would not be unconstitutionally attacked.
In that, at least, it worked, DiogenesLamp's efforts to weaponize it against the Union notwithstanding.