If this proposed amendment had been ratified the secession of the southern states would not have been needed to preserve the institution of slavery in the southern states. The reason the southern states rejected the proposed amendment was because the war was being fought over the right to the states to secede.
Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, of America in Congress assembled, that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution, viz:
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.
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