This is the third installment of a series about unratified constitutional amendments. Today we’re looking at an amendment proposed during the lead-up to the U.S. Civil War that would have protected the institution of slavery.
When the second session of the 36th Congress convened in late 1860, the issue of slavery had grown increasingly divisive, and Congress was struggling to find ways to preserve the Union. Both the House and the Senate formed committees to tackle the slavery issue and attempt to quell the looming secession crisis.
On January 14, 1861, the House committee submitted, among other measures, a constitutional amendment to protect slavery. This was an attempt to appease the Southern states, and while the amendment had some support, the required two-thirds of the House was not on board.
On February 26, 1861, Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio introduced his own text for an amendment protecting slavery. It read:
No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.
Two days later, the House approved Corwin’s proposed amendment by a vote of 133–65, just above the two-thirds threshold. The Senate took up the proposed amendment on March 2, 1861, passing it with exactly the two-thirds super majority needed: 24–12.
Just before leaving office, President James Buchanan signed the amendment, unnecessarily, since the President has no constitutional role in approving amendments. Buchanan’s successor, Abraham Lincoln, who took office on March 4, sent the proposed amendment to the states for ratification.
Had enough states ratified the amendment, it would have been the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, the amendment failed to stop Southern secession, and by that summer, 11 Southern states had seceded from the Union. For the next four years the U.S was embroiled in civil war.
In the final months of the war, Congress passed another slavery-related amendment, but this one had the opposite intention. It read:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
On December 6, 1865, Georgia became the 27th state to ratify the amendment, which pushed it over the three-fourths mark. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William Seward certified it, stating that the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery had been adopted as part of the U.S. Constitution effective December 6, 1865.
The next time Congress proposed a constitutional amendment to the states that didn’t pass was in 1926 in the attempt to regulate child labor.
Did any states actually ratify the amendment? It should have be easy to get the slave states to so they only needed about half the northern states. No mention of any states actions. Of course, time was running out. Odd that the slave states did not jump on the opportunity.
The southern states were already seceding by the time Congress passed the amendment, so none of them ratified it. Ohio and Maryland both ratified the amendment (both later ârescindedâ their ratifications although there is no provision in the Constitution to rescind an amendment once approved). Illinois ratified it by a special convention rather than the state legislature. Because this was not what the amendment called for the Illinois ratification was not seen as legal. There is some evidence that Kentucky and Rhode also passed the amendment although we have not been able to locate any documents in the National Archives to support the states ever transmitted their ratifications to the Secretary of State.
I LOVE U.S. history!!!!
I love that you have shared true history of this country. That fact that the United States had actually voted to continue slavery for the sake of keeping the nation together I has been glossed over to continue to support the myth.
Had the Southern States not declared war, who knows if we would still exist as an “enslaved” nation.
As an Black American who treasures this country , this is the truth of our histories that needs to be in the curriculum. This document like the 1619 Curriculum helps everyone understand “race” in this country.
Most African Americans have no idea of our detailed history. If you want to call it , Critical Race Theory to be political and frighten people, so be it.
The truth is just the truth.
IT IS THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN!
Deal with it!
Just so you guys understand- the 13th Amendment doesn’t technically do anything to criminalize “slavery or involuntary servitude”, thus it’s more of a concept. It allows Congress to make the legislation for it, but they have never made any legislation specifically about “slavery or involuntary servitude”- and any legislation that was made towards specific forms of slavery similar to that of pre 1865 slavery wasn’t made until the start of world war 2 when Roosevelt needed to make the US look better than Germany or Japan. That slavery was called “peonage” where the states were intentionally criminalizing people, including white people at times, for victimless crimes- then selling the “criminals” to private individuals or organizations. Today, slavery takes on more of the form of supporting the prison industrial complex and the “justice” system by selling “criminals” to private prisons- expanding government prisons- and still prosecuting victimless crimes like drug possession and sales at the forefront to both get criminal justice funds from taxes and from “civil asset forfeiture” among other things. Obviously, it also creates more cash flow for the private prisons as well, and lets not forget that it can help Big Pharma to criminalize recreational use of the drugs they sell as well as selling drugs that help revive ODs and detox abusers. Our Heroes!
As a point- I dont believe it seems very constitutional to require a name and email address to conduct free speech in a clearly government funded public forum.
I apologize- I meant to say that they didn’t specifically make “slavery or involuntary servitude” criminal until after world war 2 18 U.S. Code § 1584 – Sale into involuntary servitude (1948)
Is it even constitutional to have an amendment that restricts amending the Constitution? If so, could an amendment include a clause that states “this amendment can neither be changed nor repealed”. I’m so glad the 18th amendment didn’t have a clause like that. The first sentence reads merely “No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere…”. Ok, fine. It doesn’t say that some future amendment couldn’t be passed that reads “The 13th article of amendment to the constitution (the Corwin amendment) is hereby repealed.”