Stopping time: the pro-slavery and "irrevocable" thirteenth amendment

Abstract

Bryant evaluates the tension between the claim that Article V, which prohibits future amendments granting Congress the power to interfere with slavery in the US, expresses the exclusive procedure by which the Constitution may be amended, and the nation’s commitment to the sovereignty of the people, through the Civil War-era proposal in the Corwin Resolution. The fundamental constitutional principles of the Corwin Amendment include the relationship between popular sovereignty and the people’s ability to amend or replace an existing constitution; legislative debates concerning proposals; and exploration of the debates that are gathering insights from the amendment’s advocates.