Corwin Amendment: The Original 13th That Lincoln Backed and States Undo

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In the secession winter of 1860 and 1861, the lame-duck 36th Congress formed the Senate Committee of 13 and the House Committee of 33, and lawmakers filed more than 200 resolutions on slavery, 57 of them proposed amendments, including plans from Jefferson Davis and John J. Crittenden. The one that advanced came from Ohio Republican Thomas Corwin, with backing from William H. Seward, and barred any amendment authorizing Congress to interfere with the domestic institutions of any state, avoiding the word slavery. Owen Lovejoy of Illinois mocked the phrasing by asking whether it also covered polygamy. After a February 27 version failed 123 to 71, the House passed Corwin's text 133 to 65 the next day, and the Senate approved it 24 to 12 in the pre-dawn hours of March 4, 1861, exactly two thirds.

Outgoing President James Buchanan signed the resolution though the president has no formal role, and Abraham Lincoln said in his inaugural address that he had no objection to the protection being made express and irrevocable, later sending the text to every governor. Kentucky, Ohio, Rhode Island, Maryland and, in 1863, Illinois ratified it, and because Congress set no deadline it never expired. An 1864 bid by Senator Henry B. Anthony to withdraw it died after Lyman Trumbull's committee discharged it, and in 1963 Texas legislator Henry Stollenwerck introduced a resolution to ratify it. The episode closes with the competing legal theories on whether such an amendment could have blocked the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.

• Congress sent the amendment to state legislatures rather than conventions, since southern conventions were drafting secession ordinances.
• An 1862 Illinois ratification was invalid because it came from a constitutional convention rather than the legislature.
• Missouri Democrat John S. Phelps fired back at Lovejoy across the House floor.
• Maryland rescinded its ratification in 2014 and Illinois in 2022.
• Rhode Island's General Assembly rescinded its 1861 ratification on June 30, 2026.