[4CJ]

The federal congress never declared war while all this occurred. Maybe they considered the events in a different light.

[PeaRidge]

"The federal congress never declared war while all this occurred. Maybe they considered the events in a different light."

It was obvious that they did since they were willing to write legislation giving the seceded states what they, in Congress, thought that they wanted.

2/28/1861 Congress wrote and passed the Corwin Amendment, also known as the Slavery Amendment. In a remarkable attempt to keep Southern States from leaving the Union, a 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, later approved, and submitted to the states for ratification on March 9, 1861. It declared in part that:

“No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor service by the laws of said State”.

And, of course, Lincoln's signature, though not required, was on the document.