FLT-bird on Corwin: "They got several Northern states to ratify it and this was before Lincoln started the war."
TwelveOfTwenty: "At least one of those states, Maryland, sympathized with the confederacy."
Both Maryland & Kentucky supplied Confederate troops, but their Union troops outnumbered Confederates, in Maryland ~2-to-1 and in Kentucky ~3-to-1.
As usual, FLT-bird is confused & disoriented, so here are the facts:
Corwin ratification dates:
- Kentucky -- April 4, 1861
Fort Sumter -- April 12, 1861 - Ohio -- May 13, 1861 (rescinded March 31, 1864)
- Rhode Island -- May 31, 1861
- Maryland -- January 10, 1862 (rescinded April 7, 2014)
- Illinois -- June 2, 1863 (disputed validity)
Now compare those dates to the dates those same states ratified the 13th Amendment:
- Kentucky -- rejected February 4, 1865, ratified March 18, 1976 (35th state to ratify)
- Ohio -- February 10, 1865 (13th state to ratify)
- Rhode Island -- February 2, 1865 (2nd state to ratify)
- Maryland -- February 3, 1865 (4th state to ratify)
- Illinois -- February 1, 1865 (1st state to ratify)
Bottom line on Corwin: it was supported unanimously by Democrats in Congress, opposed by a majority of Republicans, signed by Democrat President Buchanan, it may (or may not) have helped keep Kentucky & Maryland in the Union.
In spring of 1861 Lincoln himself was willing to allow slavery as a peace-deal to preserve the Union, but even then many Union leaders understood that Confederacy could only be destroyed if slavery was also destroyed, hence "Contraband of War", 1861 Confiscation Act, Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment.
So yes, Virginia, the Civil War was all about preserving the Union and destroying slavery.