MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT LINCOLN Washington, Monday, July 14, 1862
The following Message from the President was delivered to Congress today:
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Herewith is the draft of the bill to compensate any State which may abolish slavery within its limits, the passage of which, substantially as presented, I respectfully and earnestly recommend. ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the President of the United States shall be satisfied that any State shall have lawfully abolished slavery within and throughout such State, either immediately or gradually, it shall be the duty of the President, to prepare and deliver to each State an amount of six per cent interest bearing bonds of the United States equal to the aggregate value at — dollars per heads of all the slaves within such State as reported in the census of 1860, the whole amount for any one State to be delivered at once, if the abolishment immediate, or in equal annual installments if it be gradual, interest to begin running on each bond at the time of delivery, and not before.
(Liberator, July 18, 1862, pg3)
