Ohio History Journal


The OHIO HISTORICAL Quarterly

The OHIO HISTORICAL Quarterly

VOLUME 70 ?? NUMBER 1 ?? J A N U A R Y 1961

 

 

 

The Corwin Amendment

In the Secession Crisis

 

By R. ALTON LEE*

 

 

 

THE ELECTION of a Republican president in November

1860, on a platform opposed to further extension of slavery,

sparked the secession of South Carolina from the United

States. Between December 20, 1860, and February 1, 1861,

the other six cotton states followed South Carolina out of the

Union. "Never since the world began was there a more

momentous crisis in the affairs of any people," declared the

report of a congressional committee.1 Although this statement

is too inclusive, secession undoubtedly was the greatest

exigency the American people had yet faced.

During the three-months crisis from the meeting of con-

gress on December 3, 1860, to the inauguration of Lincoln on

March 4, 1861, both Republicans and Democrats made various

attempts to compromise and conciliate. The "lame duck" con-

gress which faced these problems was dangerously split in

composition. The senate consisted of thirty-seven Democrats,

twenty-four Republicans, and two Americans, or Know-

Nothings. The house of representatives was even more closely

 

* R. Alton Lee is a graduate assistant in the department of history at the Uni-

versity of Oklahoma.

1 House Reports, 36 cong., 2 sess., I, No. 31, minority report of Miles Taylor,

John S. Phelps, A. Rust, William G. Wliteley, and Warren Winslow of the special

committee of thirty-three, 1. This series of documents, officially designated as Re-

port No. 31, will be cited hereafter as Committee of Thirty-Three.