Slavery has been used in mining for centuries. There are many mines in the West. But it wasn't a question of slavery becoming as established in New Mexico as it was in South Carolina. Rather it was a question of there being enough slaves, and slaveowners, and supporters of slavery in new states to have them vote in support of the institution.
Moreover, there is cotton growing in Arizona. It was just a question of getting enough water. The Indians were growing cotton there for thousands of years and it was the major crop by the time of statehood. I don't know when "modern irrigation started, but if it was difficult to water the crop, that means more work for more slaves.
And it wouldn't have been hard to find slave buyers who thought they could make a success at slavery in the West. There were other uses for slaves: household servants, railroad builders, construction, irrigation. Oklahoma Indians had slaves and the climate there can't be so very different from that in Kansas. Do you really think that if California had split in two, as some hoped, that Southern California wouldn't be able to find uses for slaves? Most of all, the idea that if slavery couldn't expand it would die was widely believed, and limitations on slavery were perceived as an unbearable slap at Southern pride and honor.
Five Northern states did ratify it, and Seward promised New York would do so as well. With 16 slave states, plus the five Northern states that had already ratified it, plus New York, (and face it, if New York supported it, it's little satellite states would too.) it only lacked three more states to pass.
First of all, your math is wrong. Five states ratified the amendment, but two of them were slave states. Seven slave states were in rebellion and weren't going to ratify anything. They had already made their decision and weren't going to turn around. Secessionists in the other states weren't going to support any compromise measures. Seward couldn't guarantee squat, and the Upper North wasn't going to ratify the measure. So it wasn't going to be adopted.
Am more interested in knowing what percentage of the voting population these people represented. I perceive it to be a very tiny percentage.
South Carolina wasn't really a democracy back then, but if you combine slaveowers, people who wanted to become slaveowners and people who were scared of free Blacks and slave uprisings, that was probably a majority of voters in some states.
My point is that slavery was not threatened, and the Union would continue practicing legal slavery for decades more if the South had remained.
Why on earth would your opinion possibly be more important than the opinions of thousands of people who were alive at that time?
How does one vote in support of the institution? I'm thinking the greater concern is that once having gotten the South on the hook for 73% of all taxation and with New York pocketing 60% of the revenue produced by all the South's trade output, the fear was that they would be able to vote to get out of this situation.
So long as the North had the majority in congress, the money stream from Southern trade with Europe would continue routing through their hands, and those nasty cheaper European products would continue to be held back from their markets by beneficial taxes making them uneconomical to purchase.
But the institution? What could you do by voting to further it? It was either there, or it wasn't. It's like being a little bit pregnant.
First of all, your math is wrong. Five states ratified the amendment, but two of them were slave states. Seven slave states were in rebellion and weren't going to ratify anything. They had already made their decision and weren't going to turn around. Secessionists in the other states weren't going to support any compromise measures. Seward couldn't guarantee squat, and the Upper North wasn't going to ratify the measure. So it wasn't going to be adopted.
"If" is a big word. I said "If" they thought it would have worked, they would have gotten the votes to pass it. The Southern states would have voted for it in July of 1860, but by March of 1861, they'd decided to do something different.
South Carolina wasn't really a democracy back then, but if you combine slaveowers, people who wanted to become slaveowners and people who were scared of free Blacks and slave uprisings, that was probably a majority of voters in some states
I have heard that the "Aristocracy" pretty much decided how various southern states would vote, and if this is indeed so, then it does change the legitimacy of the secession effort. Top down coercion is not Democracy. It's what we are dealing with now.
Why on earth would your opinion possibly be more important than the opinions of thousands of people who were alive at that time?
My opinion that the status quo would continue being the status quo if not disturbed, is too radical for you?