Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden introduced his Crittenden Compromise in Congress. The compromise would have protected slavery in the South through a series of constitutional amendments but the proposal was narrowly defeated in the Senate.
John J. Crittenden (1787–1863), a US senator from Kentucky, introduced a series of legislative compromises on the issue of slavery after Lincoln’s election to the presidency. The Crittenden Compromise proposed to restore and extend the Missouri Compromise line, ensure protections for slavery in the South and Washington, DC, and provide popular sovereignty to new states entering the Union. Crittenden’s proposals were defeated and failed to prevent the American Civil War. Crittenden was successful in the passage of the 1861 Crittenden-Johnson...