Class Year
2017
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
Spring 4-10-2017
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Abstract
At around 5:20AM on March 4, 1861—Inauguration Day—the Senate voted 24-12 to pass a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would permanently preserve slavery in the states where it currently existed. If successfully ratified, it would become the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution—and hopefully avert the secession crisis and the impending Civil War. However, only six states had ratified the amendment by early 1862, and the amendment died soon after. The last attempt to stop the Civil War, an attempt which had been in the works since shortly after the presidential election, had failed.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Christensen, Hannah M., "The Corwin Amendment: The Last Last-Minute Attempt to Save the Union" (2017). The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History. 242.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/compiler/242
Comments
This blog post originally appeared in The Gettysburg Compiler and was created by students at Gettysburg College.