GDG- abolitionists messmates

[Dennis Lawrence]

Thursday, January 11, 1849.
Washington, DC.

Lincoln's boarding house messmates linger at table all evening discussing 
Lincoln's amendment. They heartily approve.

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Introduced in United States House of Representatives Concerning Abolition 
of Slavery in the District of Columbia [1]
January 10, 1849

Mr. LINCOLN appealed to his colleague [Mr. WENTWORTH] [2] to withdraw his 
motion, to enable him to read a proposition which he intended to submit, if 
the vote should be reconsidered.

Mr. WENTWORTH again withdrew his motion for that purpose.

Mr. LINCOLN said, that by the courtesy of his colleague, he would say, that 
if the vote on the resolution was reconsidered, he should make an effort to 
introduce an amendment, which he should now read.

And Mr. L. read as follows:

Strike out all before and after the word ``Resolved'' and insert the 
following, towit: That the Committee on the District of Columbia be 
instructed to report a bill in substance as follows, towit: [3]

Section 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America, in Congress assembled: That no person not now 
within the District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now 
resident within it, nor hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in 
slavery within said District.

Section 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned by any 
person, or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within 
it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District: 
Provided, that officers of the government of the United States, being 
citizens of the slave-holding states, coming into said District on public 
business, and remaining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for 
that object, may be attended into, and out of, said District, and while 
there, by the necessary servants of themselves and their families, without 
their right to hold such servants in service, being thereby impaired.

Page  21
Section 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District on, 
or after the first day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand, 
eight hundred and fifty shall be free; but shall be reasonably supported 
and educated, by the respective owners of their mothers or by their heirs 
or representatives, and shall owe reasonable service, as apprentices, to 
such owners, heirs and representatives until they respectively arrive at 
the age of --- years when they shall be entirely free; and the municipal 
authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective 
jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all 
suitable and necessary provisions for enforcing obedience to this section, 
on the part of both masters and apprentices.

Section 4. That all persons now within said District lawfully held as 
slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said 
District, shall remain such, at the will of their respective owners, their 
heirs and legal representatives: Provided that any such owner, or his legal 
representative, may at any time receive from the treasury of the United 
States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section 
mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free: and 
provided further that the President of the United States, the Secretary of 
State, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall be a board for determining 
the value of such slaves as their owners may desire to emancipate under 
this section; and whose duty it shall be to hold a session for the purpose, 
on the first monday of each calendar month; to receive all applications; 
and, on satisfactory evidence in each case, that the person presented for 
valuation, is a slave, and of the class in this section mentioned, and is 
owned by the applicant, shall value such slave at his or her full cash 
value, and give to the applicant an order on the treasury for the amount; 
and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.

Section 5 That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, 
within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and 
required to provide active and efficient means to arrest, and deliver up to 
their owners, all fugitive slaves escaping into said District.

Section 6 That the election officers within said District of Columbia, are 
hereby empowered and required to open polls at all the usual places of 
holding elections, on the first monday of April next, and receive the vote 
of every free white male citizen above the age of twentyone years, having 
resided within said District for the period of one year or more next 
preceding the time of such voting, for, or against this act; to proceed, in 
taking said votes,
Page  22
in all respects not herein specified, as at elections under the municipal 
laws; and, with as little delay as possible, to transmit correct statements 
of the votes so cast to the President of the United States. And it shall be 
the duty of the President to canvass said votes immediately, and, if a 
majority of them be found to be for this act, to forthwith issue his 
proclamation giving notice of the fact; and this act shall only be in full 
force and effect on, and after the day of such proclamation.

Section 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted shall in no wise be prohibited by 
this act.

Section 8. That for all the purposes of this act the jurisdictional limits 
of Washington are extended to all parts of the District of Columbia not now 
included within the present limits of Georgetown.

Mr. LINCOLN then said, that he was authorized to say, that of about fifteen 
of the leading citizens of the District of Columbia to whom this 
proposition had been submitted, there was not one but who approved of the 
adoption of such a proposition. He did not wish to be misunderstood. He did 
not know whether or not they would vote for this bill on the first Monday 
of April; but he repeated, that out of fifteen persons to whom it had been 
submitted, he had authority to say that every one of them desired that some 
proposition like this should pass. [4]

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Annotation

[1]   Congressional Globe, Thirtieth Congress, Second Session, p. 212. Also 
ADf, DLC-RTL. The remarks are taken from the Congressional Globe, but the 
proposed bill has been corrected additionally from the autograph draft in 
the Lincoln Papers.

[2]   John Wentworth of Illinois, who had moved to table a motion to 
reconsider the resolution, adopted on December 21, 1848, on motion of 
Daniel Gott of New York, instructing the committee for the District of 
Columbia to report a bill prohibiting slavery in the District.

[3]   In the autograph draft the bill carries the following title: ``A bill 
for an act to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, by the consent 
of the free white people of said District, and with compensation to owners.''

[4]   Three days later, on January 13, Lincoln gave notice of his intention 
to introduce the bill himself, his earlier effort having come to nothing. 
He never followed the announcement, however, and the document in the 
Lincoln Papers is doubtless the actual copy made for that purpose. Years 
later, in 1861, Lincoln explained that upon ``finding that I was abandoned 
by my former backers and having little personal influence, I dropped the 
matter knowing that it was useless to prosecute the business at that 
time.'' (James Quay Howard's Notes on Lincoln, DLC-RTL).