Original Thirteenth Amendment

Relax said the night man
We are programmed to receive
You can check out anytime you like
But you can never leave
--The Eagles

Many people know that the Thirteenth Amendment, passed in late 1865, formally outlawed slavery in the United States. Far fewer people realize that a previous Thirteenth Amendment had been approved by Congress four years earlier and was making the rounds to the states for ratification. This amendment would have perpetuated slavery among the slavery and was endorsed by Abraham Lincoln. The amendment had been ratified by three states before the process was interrupted by the Civil War.

It is sometimes claimed that the amendment was originally proposed by previous President James Buchanan, although there is also evidence that the proposal came from President Lincoln himself and conveyed by soon-to-be Secretary of State William Seward. The amendment was drafted by a committee ultimately headed by Ohio representative Thomas Corwin (hence, the Corwin Amendment). Its purpose was to keep Southern states from seceding out of fears that the federal government would interfere with slavery in places where it already existed. It stated:

"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."

The Corwin Amendment received the requisite 2/3 Congressional approval necessary for a constitutional amendment, having been approved by the House on February 28, 1861 and by the Senate on March 2, 1861. The amendment was subsequently signed by Lincoln. It was then onto the states for 3/4 ratification. Ohio, Maryland, and Illinois had ratified it before the process was overtaken by the Civil War.

The original Thirteenth Amendment is another inconvenient truth for those who like to perpetuate Lincoln as the Great Emancipator and the friend of slaves. There is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

It also demonstrates once more that the political focus of the time, at least at the federal government level, involved secession and how to prevent it. Why? For one thing, secession promised to be unprofitable to many.

Like the ill-fated compromise that preceded it, the Corwin Amendment demonstrates the desperate measures that some people will support to keep an untenable union together by force. The Corwin Amendment proposed to maintain forcible bonds on some people for the benefit of others.

Subsequently, of course, the Civil War was fought to forcibly bond some people to a union that they preferred to leave.