Special Edition: Compensated Emancipation (March 6, 1862)
On March 6, 1862, President Abraham signed legislation providing for compensated emancipation in Washington D.C. Originally sponsored by Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, the act freed slaves in the District of Columbia and compensated owners up to $300 for each freeperson. In the months following the enactment of the law, commissioners approved more than 930 petitions, granting freedom to 2,989 former slaves. President Lincoln's message to Congress on March 6, 1862, also proposed compensated emancipation of slaves in the loyal border slave states.
Lincoln's Message to Congress, March 6, 1862
Message to Congress
March 6, 1862
Fellow-citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives, I recommend the adoption of a Joint Resolution by your honorable bodies which shall be substantially as follows:
Resolved that the United States ought to co-operate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state in it's discretion, to compensate for the inconveniencesĀ public and private, produced by such change of system.
If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the states and people immediately interested, should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The federal government would find it's highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation.Ā The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave states North of such part will then say āthe Union, for which we have struggled, being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.ā To deprive them of this hope, substantially ends the rebellion; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it, as to all the states initiating it. The point is not that all the states tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that, while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certainĀ to the more Southern, that in no event, will the former ever join the latter, in their proposed confederacy. I say āinitiationā because, in my judgment, gradual, and not sudden emancipation, is better for all. In the mere financial, or pecuniary view, any member of Congress,Ā with the census-tables and Treasury-reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition, on the part of the general government, sets up no claim of a right, by federal authority, to interfere with slavery within state limits, referring, as it does, the absoluteĀ control of the subject, in each case, to the state and it's people, immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them.
In the annual message last December, I thought fit to say āthe Union must be preserved; and hence all indispensable means must be employed.ā I said this, not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, an indispensable means to this end. A practical re-acknowledgement of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents, which may attendĀ and all the ruin which may followĀ it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle, must and will come.
The proposition now made (though an offer only) I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned, than are the institution, and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs.
While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God, and to myĀ country, I earnestlyĀ beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
March 6. 1862.