“Nobody denies that all the original states had slavery during the Revolutionary era, but that’s not what we were talking about.”
It is not what you were talking about. Probably the reason you don’t talk about it much is because you don’t want word to get around.
The slaves states - all 13 of them - wrote slavery into the U.S. constitution. And the 13 states provided a method of changing the constitution - constitutional amendments.
Do you know why Lincoln and the northern states did not use the constitutional amendment process to end slavery peacefully?
jeffersondem:
"Do you know why Lincoln and the northern states did not use the constitutional amendment process to end slavery peacefully?" Actually, they did, in 1865 in Union states.
But things were quite different in 1860:
- Look at the record: Southern Democrats dominated all branches of Federal Government in Washington, DC, almost continuously from 1788 through 1860.
They not only prevented congress from abolishing slavery, they prevented Congress from even discussing slavery for many years.
- In 1860 the brand new Republican party was the only national party ever to promote even mildly abolitionist ideals.
Prior to the 1850s all US political parties, North and South, had been pro-slavery.
- The 1860 Republican platform called for no slavery in US western territories which didn't want it, but said nothing about abolishing slavery in the South.
The reason is simple: the US constitution recognized slavery in the South, but not necessarily in western territories.
Further, very few Republicans had the courage to call for abolition in the South, but enough did to provide political ammunition for secessionist Fire Eaters to declare their disunion in 1861.
- So bottom line: in 1860 a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery had no chance of passage or ratification and was not on anybody's agenda.
Indeed, in an effort to preserve the Union, Northern Democrats were willing to more explicitly recognize slavery in a new 13th amendment.
By 1865, things had changed quite radically.