Title: How the Civil War Changed the Constitution - The New York Times
Headings: How the Civil War Changed the Constitution
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How the Civil War Changed the Constitution
By Paul Finkelman
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Disunion
How the Civil War Changed the Constitution
By Paul Finkelman
June 2, 2015 7:00 am
June 2, 2015 7:00 am
Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded. The most obvious constitutional result of the Civil War was the adoption of three landmark constitutional amendments. The 13th ended slavery forever in the United States, while the 14th made all persons born in the  United States (including the former slaves) citizens of the nation and prohibited the states from denying anyone the privileges and immunities of American citizenship, due process or law, or equal protection of  the law. Finally, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited the states from denying the franchise to anyone based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” These amendments, however, have their roots in the war itself, and in some ways can been seen as formal acknowledgments of the way the war altered the Constitution. Other changes came about without any amendments. Thus,  the war altered the Constitution in a variety of ways. A review of some of them underscores how the Union that President Lincoln preserved was fundamentally different — and better — than the Union  he inherited when he became president. Slavery
The first and most obvious change involves slavery. The 13th Amendment was possible (as were the other two Civil War amendments) only because the war broke slavery’s stranglehold over politics  and constitutional development.