Lincoln's Recommendation for Gradual Emancipation
3/6/1862
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President Abraham Lincoln sent this message to Congress recommending a resolution to encourage the gradual emancipation of enslaved people.
Transcript
Fellow citizens of the Senateand 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 its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, 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 its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. 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, "the Union for which we have
struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the southern section." 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 certain to the more southern, that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say "initiation" because in my judgment, gradual, and not sudden, emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, 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 absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its 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, "The Union must be preserved; and house all indispensable means must be employed. " 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 unneccessary, and it would once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow 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 offence 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 properly 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 my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.
March 6, 1862
Abraham Lincoln
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Senate.
National Archives Identifier: 306438
Full Citation: Message of President Abraham Lincoln recommending a resolution to encourage the gradual emancipation of enslaved people; 3/6/1862; Presidential Messages to the Senate in the 37th Congress Suggesting Legislation; Presidential Messages, 1789 - 1875; Records of the U.S. Senate, Record Group 46; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/lincoln-gradual-emancipation, April 30, 2025]Activities that use this document
- From Slavery to Juneteenth: Emancipation and Ending Enslavement
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