Never Heard That One Before

Just read over at one of my favorite wacky libertarian blogs about this proposed 13th Amendment at the beginning of Lincoln’s first term. Apparently in order to prevent secession, Congress tried to pass an Amendment promising it would never outlaw slavery. It got pretty close too. But the polarization has gone too far by that point, and the South had plenty of other complaints.

Just want you all to know how close our government got to making a constitutional decree that we could never outlaw slavery. (And if any historian has rebuttals, please let me know.)