[jeffersondem]

“What Lincoln was saying was irrevocable was “that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service.””

Your point is well taken. The way you have phrased the meaning of Lincoln's words is better than the way I phrased it.

With permission, I'll amend and re-ask the question from my post 439:

So there was time before the war for the North to prepare a constitutional amendment making irrevocable that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service, but not time to prepare an amendment to abolish slavery?

Enshrinement plus.

[rockrr]

So there was time before the war for the North to prepare a constitutional amendment making irrevocable that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service, but not time to prepare an amendment to abolish slavery?

No.

[DoodleDawg]

So there was time before the war for the North to prepare a constitutional amendment making irrevocable that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service, but not time to prepare an amendment to abolish slavery?

And had Congress passed an amendment to end slavery what do you think the reaction would be, both in the states that seceded and those slave states that didn't?