1/x On this Juneteeth day, I want to step back a moment and talk briefly about, not the day itself, but how close we came to that day never coming to pass when it did. #HappyJuneteenth #JUNETEENTH2020
2/x From 1850 to 1861, there were about 150 proposals for a 13th Amendment that would have made it unconstitutional to abolish slavery. In other words, while the post-war 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the pre-war versions would have done the opposite.
3/x That 150 number is not a typo. Those in favor of slavery tried really, really, really hard to write it more explicitly into the Constitution. The fact that they didn’t succeed was not for a lack of trying and they almost succeeded.
4/x One of these proposals passed both houses of Congress, was signed by President Buchanan, sent to the states for ratification, though only 4 states ratified it. It was called the Corwin Amendment – named after Rep. Thomas Corwin of Ohio. Here is the actual language: 
5/x When Lincoln took office, he endorsed the Amendment. If you read his first inaugural address very closely, he says so here:
6/x What Lincoln was referring to was the idea that the Constitution already implicitly provided that the federal government could not abolish slavery and that all the Corwin amendment did was to make that explicit. This was pretty much what Justice Taney said in Dred Scott
7/x In a way it’s a coincidence that there were no amendments ratified after the 12th and before the post-war 13th such that the very number that abolished slavery would have preserved it had it been ratified. But, even if only symbolically, it’s more than a coincidence.
8/x In certain circles, people still argue that the war wasn’t necessary, that slavery was on its last legs, and that left to its own devices the South would have abolished it without bloodshed.
9/x I think the Corwin amendment (plus the 149 other attempts at enshrining a slavery 13th into the constitution) shows that’s a myth. Plus, even Lincoln, for a time, seemed prepared to go along with a 13th amendment that would have made slavery constitutional text.
10/10 Anyway happy #JuneteenthDay
