Corwin Amendment facts for kids

The Corwin Amendment was a suggested change to the Constitution of the United States. It was passed by the United States Congress on March 2, 1861. Then, it was sent to the state legislatures for their approval.

Senator William H. Seward from New York first brought up this amendment in the United States Senate. In the United States House of Representatives, Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio introduced it.

This amendment was one of several ideas Congress tried. They hoped it would bring the states that were leaving the Union back. They also wanted to convince border slave states to stay. These were states that allowed slavery but had not yet left the Union.

The Corwin Amendment is still officially waiting for approval from the states. If it were approved, it would protect "domestic institutions" of the states. In 1861, this mainly meant slavery. It would stop the way the Constitution can be changed from affecting slavery. It would also prevent Congress from getting involved with it.

What the Amendment Says

The Corwin Amendment has a very specific text. It says:

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.

In simpler words, this means no future change to the Constitution could give Congress the power to end slavery. It also means Congress could not get involved with slavery within any state. The phrase "persons held to labor or service" was a way to refer to enslaved people.

States That Voted on It

The Corwin Amendment needed many states to approve it to become part of the Constitution. Here are the states that voted on it:

• Ohio approved it on May 13, 1861. However, they later took back their approval on March 31, 1864.
• Maryland approved it on January 10, 1862. They also took back their approval much later, on April 7, 2014.
• Illinois approved it on February 14, 1862. But there are questions about whether their approval was fully valid.

Many years later, in 1963, someone tried to get the Corwin Amendment approved again. A politician named Henry Stollenwerck from Dallas, Texas, suggested it in the Texas House of Representatives. This idea was sent to a committee but was not discussed further.

What If It Had Passed?

If the Corwin Amendment had been approved, it would have had a big impact. If we look at the words exactly as they are written, it would have made slavery impossible to change through new amendments.

This means that later amendments, like the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, might not have been allowed. These amendments ended slavery and gave rights to former slaves. The Corwin Amendment would have stopped Congress from ending or changing the system of slavery in the states.

However, some people have a different idea. They think that a later amendment could have canceled the Corwin Amendment. For example, the Twenty-first Amendment clearly canceled the Eighteenth Amendment. So, a new amendment could have either directly canceled the Corwin Amendment or been understood to do so.

Images for kids

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  Representative Thomas Corwin, who introduced the amendment in the House

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  The Corwin Amendment as it was approved by the 36th U.S. Congress in March 1861