Prologue : the bread pill -- The antebellum context. The abolition movement and the problem of the Constitution ; Antislavery politics and the problem of the constitution ; The Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln, and the problem of the Constitution -- Origins of the other Thirteenth Amendment. Mutual misconceptions ; The Seward amendment ; The Corwin amendment -- Debating the other Thirteenth Amendment. Reaching across the abyss ; The unfazed and the alarmed ; The amendment assessed -- The abortive launch. Congress acts ; The president speaks ; The ratification fizzle -- Epilogue 1. James M. Ashley and the Thirteenth Amendment -- Epilogue 2. John A. Bingham and the Fourteenth Amendment.