New York Times: Slavery and Jim Crow were part of the free market

[MMMark]

Sun. 10/05/23 13:19 EDT
.post #106

[url=New York Times: Slavery and Jim Crow were part of the free market - #42 by Snowflake]

@Snowflake

[/url]In his inaugural address, he actually proposed amending the constitution to make slavery unrepealable.

You are referring to the Corwin Amendment?

According to this wiki article, Lincoln simply stated that he “had no objection” to it.

Here is the pertinent text from Lincoln’s first inaugural address:

@Abraham Lincoln

I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution, which amendment, however, I have not seen, has passed Congress, to the effect that the federal government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.

Again, from the wiki article on the Corwin Amendment:

@wikipedia

The proposed amendment would have forbidden attempts to subsequently amend the Constitution to empower the Congress to “abolish or interfere” with the “domestic institutions” of the states, including “persons held to labor or service” (a reference to slavery). In particular, the Corwin Amendment was intended to prohibit the Congress from banning slavery in those states whose laws permitted it.

Lincoln said he “had no objection” to the Corwin Amendment, but then went on to do precisely what it forbade, namely, “interfere with the domestic institutions of the states.” When trying to understand Lincoln’s priorities, I focus on his actions, not his rhetoric. Lincoln’s actions clearly suggest that concentration of federal power took precedence over the abolition of chattel slavery, but he was able to exploit the issue of the latter as a means to accomplishing the former.

edit:

I’ve got this wrong.

What the Corwin Amendment forbade was not “interference with the domestic institutions of the states,” but rather, any constitutional amendments granting congress the power to do this.