The Corwin Amendment, also known as House Joint Resolution 80, was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that emerged in 1861, right on the cusp of the American Civil War.
It was passed not because the Republicans WANT slavery to continue, but to appease Southern states and avert the war that would have killed and maimed millions of Americans by guaranteeing the federal government wouldn’t interfere with existing state laws, including those concerning slavery.
If ratified, the amendment would have prohibited Congress from abolishing or interfering with any state’s “domestic institutions,” including slavery, through future amendments.
However, the outbreak of the Civil War and secession of Southern states prevented the necessary ratification process from taking place. The amendment never officially became part of the Constitution.
Ther point was it was a desperate attempt to preserve the Union and avert the war, even through compromise on the sensitive issue of slavery.
Also, when the Corwin Amendment was passed by the outgoing 36th Congress in March 1862, Republicans (who first came into existence as the anti-slavery party only six years before) only had a bare majority in the Senate and a plurality in the House because eight Southern States had already enacted ordinances of secession and taken their Democrat Congresscritters with them.
All remaining Democrats voted for it, joining with some Republicans to make the necessary 2/3 supermajority.
See also, Post #58.
Don't tell me what their asserted reasons are for supporting a permanent slavery amendment. Politicians lie, and they do so effortlessly.
The point here is that *REPUBLICANS* were the chief proponents of this permanent slavery amendment. I don't want to hear their words of explanation. Nothing they say can explain why they voted to keep slavery forever.
The only thing that makes any sense is that something was more important to them than a concern about slavery, and that something made them vote for it.
I think that something was money because i'm cynical that way, and when you look at any issue in Washington DC, you find at some point it always boils down to someone getting money.
The amendment never officially became part of the Constitution.
Is irrelevant to the fact they voted for it. Someone shoots at you and misses, it doesn't mean that they didn't shoot at you. It means they *MISSED*! Their evil intent was still there, they were just not successful at carrying it through.