Compensated Emancipation

[redfish]

Could anyone expand on Lincoln's idea of compensated emancipation for border states?

Regards,

Mike.

[unionblue]

Mike, I'll step up and try and shed a bit of light on this one.

During the winter of 1861 - 1862 Lincoln looked into the idea of compensated emancipation.

Since November of 1861, Lincoln had been working with George P. Fisher and Nathaniel B. Smithers to draft a bill for gradual emancipation in Delaware, where the number of slaves was inconsequential. Lincoln prepared two slightly different proposals, both of which promised federal funds to pay Delaware to emancipate its slaves. Under both plans emancipation would begin immediately. One looked to total emancipation by 1867, the other by 1893. Lincoln preferred the second version, which would require the nation to pay the state $23,200 per year for thirty-one years.

After Delaware rejected the plans, Lincoln began his own emancipation project, which he submitted to Congress in May, 1862. In his message, the President urged Congress to adopt a joint resolution declaring "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 inconveniences public, and private, produced by such change of system." Such a declaration, he held, was strictly constitutional because it made no claim of federal authority to interfere with slavery within state limits but allowed each state "perfectly free choice" to accept or reject the proposed offer. He argued for his resolution not on the basis of morality or justice but on the ground it would remove any temptation for the border state to join the "proposed confederacy." To congressman from those states he added the warning that as the war continued it would be "impossible to forsee all the incidents, which may attend and all the ruin which may follow it."

But border-state congressman said nothing. The next day they were summoned to the White House where they haggled with him. Was his plan constitutional? Would Congress appropriate the money needed to put it in effect? Was this a first step toward a general emancipation? Would emancipation be followed by colonization of the freedmen? Although Lincoln tried to reassure them, the plan came to nothing. So no emancipation, compensated or otherwise came of this effort. I got all of this from the book, LINCOLN, by David Herbert Donald, published in 1995.

There was another attempt by Lincoln to compensate slave owners very late in the war, around late 1864, early 1865, but his cabinet rejected the idea. I will post the details when I can reference the source.

Unionblue

[unionblue]

Mike, found it! On February 3, at Hampton Roads, VA, aboard the steamer River Queen, Lincoln met with three Confederate commissioners to discuss peace possibilities.

Although Lincoln stated nothing came of the conference, he did tell the confederate commissioners Stephens and Hunter that he would be generous in restoring Southern property seized under the Confiscation Acts, and he would be willing to be taxed to remunerate the Southern people for their slaves.

When Lincoln returned to Washington, he drew up a proposal which asked Congress to appropriate $400,000,000 to be distributed to the Southern states in proportion to their slave population. Half would be paid by April 1, if all resistance to the national authority ceased, and the remaining half by July 1, provided that the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.

The President laid his plan before the cabinet at an evening session on February 5, earnestly defending it "as a measure of strict and simple economy." "How long has this war lasted, and how long do you suppose it will still last?" he asked his advisers. Answering his own question, he told them: "We cannot hope that it will end in less than a hundred days. We are now spending three millions a day, and that will equal the full amount I propose to pay, to say nothing of the lives lost and property destroyed." But the cabinet was not convinced and felt the war would only end by force of arms. "You are all against me," Lincoln said and he reluctantly gave up his proposal.

In my own humble opinion, Lincoln tried very hard to end the war, early on and at this late date, to save Southern pride and compensate her. But pride on the Southern side and the need for revenge on the Northern side made it impossible by 1865.

Again I got my information from the book LINCOLN, by David Herbert Donald.

Hope this helped,
Unionblue

[redfish]

Grand!! Great posts. Thank you. I thought I read in 1862 there were 432,000 slaves in the border states. I do not know if that is correct. And at that time the war was costing $2 million a day. Lincoln figured emancipation compensation in the border states would cost 3 months of warfare. But abolitionists opposed the U.S. govt. buying human property. And as you pointed out the southern states rejected it altogether.

Regards,

Mike.

[unionblue]

Mike, just a bit of information to add to your thread here, Senator Sumner, one of the greatest abolistionists of the day, was working with Lincoln on the Delaware plan. Though the Delaware emancipation scheme proved abortive it was significant in that Sumner did not oppose it. Representing an abolistionist constituency that for three decades had insisted on immediate, uncompensated emancipation, Sumner was persuaded to go along with Lincoln's plan. "Never should and question of money be allowed to interfere with human freedom," he concluded!

Just thought you might like to know.

Unionblue

[redfish]

Thank you kind sir. I did not know that. I viewed Sumner as a die-hard radical. Could you recommend any materials specific to Sumner??

Regards,

mike.

[unionblue]

Mike, nope and sorry about that, just got lucky in remembering the passage from the book Lincoln.

Good luck with your search, though, and keep me posted if you find anything out.

YMOS,

Unionblue