“That wasn’t Lincoln’s, that was Corwin”
Perhaps my source is wrong? My reading of it is one in which Lincoln supported this proposed amendment as written. Can you provide a reference that will, perhaps enlighten me?
“So please tell us all about that enlightened attitude in
the South towards slavery.”
There was no enlightened attitude toward slavery for either side. Individaully, and in certain groups, there was anti-slavery sentiment and activity. But, not as a whole for either side. IMO, degree of participation does not negate the fact of participation.
Why would Lincoln support the proposed amendment if he was so moved to stop slavery?
The fact that it was called the Corwin Amdendment is a give-away. Here's the history of it: Link
Why would Lincoln support the proposed amendment if he was so moved to stop slavery
Because of the language of the amendment: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the 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." The amendment protected slavery where it existed. It did not protect the expansion of slavery. Lincoln and the Republicans were not fools. They knew that they lacked the votes to pass an amendment to outlaw slavery entirely. They could, after all, count and they knew that if the 15 existing slave states held together it would take 46 other states to adopt such an amendment. Their goal all along was to restrict slavery to areas where it was already established and let it wither on the vine there. It was that same language that made the Corwin Amendment toxic to the Southern states.
“Perhaps my source is wrong? My reading of it is one in which Lincoln supported this proposed amendment as written. Can you provide a reference that will, perhaps enlighten me?”
OK......
Not too steady in his grasp of constitutional law, President Buchanan signed the joint resolution the day the Senate approved it: an unnecessary step, given the fact that Congressional power to propose amendments to the Constitution is not subject to presidential approval or veto. Two days later, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the sixteenth president of the United States and the proposed amendment was largely forgotten, although two states, Ohio and Maryland, actually ratified it! An Illinois state constitutional convention that met in 1862 purported to ratify the amendment, but had no legal authority to do so. Interestingly, Lincoln alluded to the Corwin amendment in his First Inaugural Address (paragraph 29). Although he stopped short of endorsing it, he said, “holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.” Those were clearly not the words of a wild-eyed abolitionist (as Lincoln’s detractors portrayed him), but of a practical politician trying to manage an unprecedented crisis.
http://ghostamendment.com/