In this situation of affairs, Mr.
Lincoln conceived the fond hope that he might be able to present a plan
of compromise. He already entertained the idea which in later years
during his presidency he urged upon both Congress and the border slave
States, that the just and generous mode of getting rid of the barbarous
institution of slavery was by a system of compensated emancipation
giving freedom to the slave and a money indemnity to the owner. He
therefore carefully framed a bill providing for the abolishment of
slavery in the District upon the following principal conditions:
_First_. That the law should be adopted by a popular vote in the
District.
_Second_. A temporary system of apprenticeship and gradual emancipation
for children born of slave mothers after January 1, 1850.
_Third_. The government to pay full cash value for slaves voluntarily
manumitted by their owners.
_Fourth_. Prohibiting bringing slaves into the District, or selling them
out of it.
_Fifth_. Providing that government officers, citizens of slave States,
might bring with them and take away again, their slave house-servants.
_Sixth_. Leaving the existing fugitive-slave law in force.
When Mr. Lincoln presented this amendment to the House, he said that he
was authorized to state that of about fifteen of the leading citizens of
the District of Columbia, to whom the proposition had been submitted,
there was not one who did not approve the adoption of such a
proposition.
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