The Aborted Thirteenth Amendment – Part I

                Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

                Content: Washington in the winter of 1861 was bleak for the champions of union. The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln had provoked the departure of seven deep Southern states who correctly or not sensed that Lincoln represented a growing national consensus that slavery had to be contained if not eliminated. Ironically, the southern radicals had fulfilled their own prophecy. So adamant had they been in rejecting any compromise that they had forced a split in the Democratic Party, creating four candidates running for President, that they had insured Lincoln’s victory.