DoodleDawg: "I've gone back through the relevant parts of my Lincoln biographies by David Herbert Donald, Ronald C. White, and Doris Goodwin, and in none of them do I find anything about Lincoln orchestrating the Corwin Amendment. Nothing at all."
Right, it's complete nonsense, like so much of our Lost Causers' mythology.
In fact, the proposed Corwin Amendment began with Democrats like Senator Jefferson Davis as an effort to reassure Southerners slavery was safe in the Union.
It was pushed by Democrat President Buchanan, passed by Democrats in Congress, with Republicans opposed, and signed by Buchanan.
It was strictly a Democrat effort to preserve the Union by protecting slavery.
Lincoln didn't oppose it because, as he said, Corwin didn't really change anything already in the Constitution.
So Corwin was ratified by just four states -- two Northern and two Border states.
By stark contrast, the 13th Amendment with Lincoln's full support passed Congress with Republican support and Democrat opposition and was soon ratified by the 3/4 of states constitutionally required.
Right, it’s complete nonsense, like so much of our Lost Causers’ mythology.
In fact, the proposed Corwin Amendment began with Democrats like Senator Jefferson Davis as an effort to reassure Southerners slavery was safe in the Union.
It was pushed by Democrat President Buchanan, passed by Democrats in Congress, with Republicans opposed, and signed by Buchanan.
It was strictly a Democrat effort to preserve the Union by protecting slavery.
Lincoln didn’t oppose it because, as he said, Corwin didn’t really change anything already in the Constitution.
So Corwin was ratified by just four states — two Northern and two Border states.
By stark contrast, the 13th Amendment with Lincoln’s full support passed Congress with Republican support and Democrat opposition and was soon ratified by the 3/4 of states constitutionally required.
Nope! Its complete nonsense to try to claim that the de facto leader of the party knew nothing about, was not consulted about, had no hand in something as important as a proposed constitutional amendment. The PC Revisionists, trying to maintain their little fantasy about “honest Abe” and the myth of the virtuous North are desperate to try to gloss over the fact that slavery was not threatened in the US and that Northerners were only too happy to enshrine explicit protections for slavery in the Constitution effectively forever, but the facts are plain to see. Anybody can read the Corwin Amendment or Lincoln’s inaugural address and see that this is so.
U.S. Representative Thomas Corwin, Ohio 7th District, sponsored the proposed Corwin Amendment.
Representative Corwin was a Republican.