Lincoln Proposes an Amendment to the Constitution regarding
Slavery [1862]
"ARTICLE-.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of both houses concurring),
That the following articles be proposed to the legislatures (or conventions) of
the several States as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all
or any of which articles when ratified by three fourths of the said
legislatures (or conventions) to be valid as part or parts of the said
Constitution, viz.:
"ARTICLE-.
"Every State wherein slavery now exists which shall abolish
the same therein at any time or times before the first day of January in the
year of our Lord one thousand and nine hundred, shall receive compensation from
the United States as follows, to wit:
"The President of the
"ARTICLE-.
"All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by
the chances of the war at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall be
forever free; but all owners of such who shall not have been disloyal shall be
compensated for them at the same rates as are provided for States adopting
abolishment of slavery, but in such way that no slave shall be twice accounted
for.
"Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for
colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place or places
without the