With the secession crisis impending, Adams decided to set himself apart. Unlike other antislavery men, he promised to help negotiate a compromise to save the Union that his grandfather had helped create. In December, he joined the House Committee of Thirty-Three, a group composed of one member from each state, to draft a compromise proposal. The committee settled on the infamous Corwin Amendment, a proposal to change the Constitution to permanently stop Congress from interfering with slavery in any state.
