It would seem that the economic power behind the evil was such that even Lincoln, who elsewhere morally decried chattel slavery, pussyfooted around here.
There’s one sight that I never saw but I could well imagine what it looked like, on a large estate in Kentucky, on which there was a large mound. I was told that this was a filled-in place where they had chains, not for prisoners (there wouldn’t be any of those visiting a private estate), but for the chattel slaves of travelers. It was a chilling thought.
Now why did people have these slaves in the first place? It was economics... hiring voluntary help would have cost them more.
In this fallen world, money talks far more than it should be allowed to.
I would say that's a rather diplomatic way of putting "complete capitulation on the central moral claim of the war."
Supporting the Corwin amendment is so contrary to why they claimed to have fought the war, that it ought to convince people they have been buffaloed and conned as to the real purpose for fighting it.