“ANOTHER POLITICAL MANEUVER”
by Michael Gaddy, ©2016, blogging at The Rebel Madman
(Oct. 31, 2016) — *Author’s note: There is a question which deserves much more attention than it receives: Considering Lincoln was willing to make slavery perpetual and to remove it from even congressional action with the Corwin Amendment in order to “preserve the Union,” had the Southern states repealed their secession, when would slavery have ended? Not rejoining a Union in which slavery would be perpetual is proof positive the war was not about slavery, nor did the South secede to protect slavery. I believe a substantial case can be made that had the Southern states not seceded and had in fact rejoined Lincoln’s precious Union, slavery would have existed much longer in this country than it did.
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.
When Abraham Lincoln took office in March of 1861, this country had observed as legal the institution of chattel slavery for its entire existence. President Lincoln, having secured not one electoral vote from the Southern States, declared in his First Inaugural Address that it was his full intention to use the power of the presidency to perpetuate and protect that onerous institution “in the states where it exists.”
Certainly not taught in our government schools is the fact that two days before Lincoln took the Oath of Office of President, a proposed amendment to the Constitution referred to as the Corwin Amendment passed both houses of Congress and was being sent to the states for ratification. Lincoln spoke of his support for this amendment in his Inaugural address on March 4.
“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.”
History shows that Lincoln was not being truthful when he stated he had not seen the proposed amendment which had passed both houses of congress. Author Doris Kearns-Goodwin in her “political biography” of Abraham Lincoln titled Team of Rivals states the following on page 296.
“He [Lincoln] instructed Seward to introduce these proposals in the Senate Committee of Thirteen without indicating they issued from Springfield. The first resolved that ‘the Constitution should never be altered so as to authorize Congress to abolish or interfere with slavery in the states.’ Another recommendation that he instructed Seward to get through Congress was that ‘all state personal liberty laws in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law be repealed.”
Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo, author of The Real Lincoln and Lincoln Unmasked, declared that Lincoln not only was aware of the proposed amendment but, was in fact, its author. Below is the text of that amendment which was authored/endorsed by Lincoln, passed by both houses of congress and sent personally to the governor of each state by Lincoln himself which was discovered in 2006 in a museum in Allentown, PA. This critical piece of history is available in the records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 106th Congress, 2nd Session, The Constitution of the United States of America, Doc. No. 106-214.
“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.”
Prior to Lincoln’s military invasion of the South, Lincoln had done everything within his power to make chattel slavery perpetual throughout the entire country. He had also instructed his Secretary of State, William H. Seward, to work on federal legislation that would outlaw any attempts to nullify the Fugitive Slave law. Several states in the North had passed laws to prohibit the federally-mandated return of fugitive slaves. Lincoln wanted a federal law that would counter such legislation by the states.
Lincoln was more than willing to make the enslavement of the black race perpetual–if it would preserve the Union.
Looked upon by an intelligent eye rather than an emotional one, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued twice, must be seen as simply another political maneuver to preserve/restore the union.
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. …What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union.” ~Lincoln in an open letter to Horace Greeley, which appeared in the New York Tribune on August 22, 1862.
Here, again, in his own words, Lincoln states that Slavery was not his primary interest. Lincoln’s primary goal was the preservation of the Union which would protect the interests of the Socialists in his cabinet and armed forces who were the founders of the Republican Party.
Read the rest here.