Final answer:
The issue of slavery was indeed a Constitutional issue as it was embedded in the original Constitution through clauses like the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause, and it took the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery and resolve its legal entrenchment in the United States.
Step-by-step explanation:
Yes, is the issue of Slavery a Constitutional issue because it was explicitly addressed in the original text of the U.S. Constitution through provisions like the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause. The issue was so contentious at the Constitutional Convention that it reflected a profound disagreement between the northern and southern states, leading to clauses that extended the international slave trade until 1808 and that required states to return escaped enslaved people.
These Constitutional provisions laid the groundwork for the complex and heated debates of the antebellum period, showcasing the legal entrenchment of slavery in the United States. It took the passage of the 13th Amendment to resolve this Constitutional support of slavery by abolishing it across the entire United States, highlighting that slavery was not only a social and economic issue but a Federal and Constitutional one as well.