Slavery...the eternal issue in America Part 1/2

The 13th amendment in retrospective

Many Americans are under the illusion that the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery. Its words certainly sound as if it did: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The language sounds quite clear. Neither "slavery" (defined by one dictionary as "submission to a dominating influence") nor "involuntary" ("compulsory") "servitude" ("a condition in which one lacks liberty esp. to determine one's course of action or way of life") shall exist within the United States.

But words are abstractions, and must always be interpreted. As Orwell made clear to us, unless we pay attention to what is being said, scheming men and women with ambitions over the lives and property of others, will interpret words in such ways as to convey the opposite meaning most of us attach to those words. This is true with the American state — particularly through its definers and obfuscators in the judicial system — in telling us the "true meaning" of the 13th Amendment. This provision was only intended to prohibit private forms of slavery; the state was not intended to be bound by its otherwise clear language. Thus, the 13th Amendment did not end slavery, but only nationalized it. The state is to have a monopoly on trafficking in slaves!

The Constitution: Expired yet?

"I was also looking forward to this opportunity to dispel some of the mythology surrounding myself and my fellow Founders-particularly the myth of our infallibility. You moderns have a tendency to worship at the altar of the Fathers. "The First Amendment is sacrosanct!" "We will die to protect the Second Amendment!" So dramatic. Do you know why we called them amendments? Because they amend! They fix mistakes or correct omissions and they themselves can be changed. If we had meant for the Constitution to be written in stone we would have written it in stone. Most things were written in stone back then, you know. I'm not trying to be difficult but it's bothersome when you blame your own inflexibility and extremism on us.

Not that we weren't awesome. We wrote the Constitution in the time it takes you nimrods to figure out which is the aye button and which is the nay. But we weren't gods. We were men. We had flaws. Adams was an unbearable prick and squealed girlishly whenever he saw a bug. And Ben Franklin? If crack existed in our day, that boozed-up snuff machine would weigh 80 pounds and live outside the Port Authority. And I had slaves. Damn, I can't believe I had slaves!"

                                                                                  By Thomas Jefferson.

                                                                                     From: America: The book

The Emancipation Proclamation...So debatable.

The Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free any slaves because it related only to areas under the control of the Confederacy. The South broke away from the North, and President Lincoln couldn't make slave owners living in the Confederate States of America obey the Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War ended and the South became part of the United States again, the South had to obey Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation didn't include slaves in the border states and in some southern areas under the North's control, such as Tennessee and parts of Virginia and Louisiana. Although no slaves were actually freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it did lead to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment became a law on December 18, 1865, and ended slavery in all parts of the United States.

The Emancipation Proclamation didn't free any slaves at the time it was issued. It was issued only because Lincoln told the South that if they didn't return to the Union by January 1, 1863, their slaves would be free. Lincoln didn't actually have the power to free the slaves in the South because it was not under his control. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't issued just to help free the slaves, but to help the North win the war. Fortunately, this strategy worked and when the Civil War ended, the Emancipation Proclamation finally began to free slaves.

Are we free yet?

Today African Americans live in the illusion of freedom fueling this idea in their minds by different propaganda and slogans, from the national slogans such as the land of the free home of the brave, freedom isn't free, fight for freedom and democracy, 911 pic. Support our troops fighting for our freedom, to the Black people fascination by Abraham Lincoln and his declaration, calling him, "Great Emancipator" sounds a little bit like “ Terminator” of Slavery.

He is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, at least that's what the emancipation proclamation meant for Blacks, as naïve, as ignorant and transparent that they are, with the slave mentality, and a primitive state of mind they considered Lincoln their hero and Chanted freedom now and oh! Freedom, celebrating the passage to another stage of their low existence in the USA as slaves descendants, the passage forced by political constraints and war strategic necessities, the stage they call it freedom...Or they are freed, in the sense that there is no more bondage, no more slavery the old way, slavery the evil that divided the states and caused a horrible war, is now eradicated for a new modern America promoting freedom, equality, and justice for all.

Slavery residues impacts on the Black population

American society is characterized by the divergence racial of its composition, basically founded on a black and white core, and the remains of Native Americans, with a recent influx of immigrants from all the parts of the world, the basic demographic composition is more or less about 14% Hispanics, 13% Blacks and about 66% whites, those are estimations to give a global idea about the demographic structure of the US.

The historical figures who were most influential in emancipating the slave harbored racist attitudes toward the American Negro. Then as now, racism and humanitarianism coexisted.

While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it is also true, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad. As President, he supported projects to remove blacks from the United States, where they can embrace the real freedom and be a person, not a state property.

African American, descendants of African slaves, now live in America as an intruder, as an incompatible element as an implanted organ in the nation's body that can't be rejected, yet it's not compatible, whites have to deal with the evil of slavery since they didn't take the chance to settle blacks somewhere else, now they are stuck with the evil of slavery, a population of Slaves descendants with the lowest IQ of the planet, that educational institution must lower their standards to accommodate them.

The struggle for equality, despite genetic limitations

Even though slavery in the United States ended with the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, the wounds inflicted by the “peculiar institution” are still being felt today. Current racial tensions even though invisible most of the time, can be attributed in part to the legacy of slavery. Blacks as an instinct of revenge and to avoid further discrimination, they start invading the white society obsessed by the integration and assimilation, handicapped by a wide cultural gap and the so negatively stereotyped look, they struggled in their quest, to a faster assimilation they will take the biologic shortcut, cross-breeding, it became an obsession of black men, the patriotic duty toward the African American community, Black men cross breed left and right, consensual or not the beast has to spread it' seeds, and it worked, a new category of slaves descendants, emerged; light-skinned African Americas, they look different, with a light complexion and different facial features, since they cross breed with all the races, yet the African slaves' genes and spirit are there, sure it made things easier to its quest for revenge, the new creature even though not white pass better than a pure race Black person, this explains the obsession of Black men with white females.

This factors along with different laws and bureaucratic procedures changed the reality of African Americans, and as a result, they are more populous, a large representation in every state, even though still outnumbered by whites, African American blacks friendly and other minority often taking the side of each other making Blacks a race that must be kept under control, and to avoid any racial tension, since it may lead to riots and a possible civil war.

Examples from History have shown that the Black race is easily offended, big riots exploded as a result of minor racial incidents, black panthers, and Malcolm X are credited by a serious try to impose the Black nationalism in America.

The scare of slavery, still alive in their soul

African Americans have not forgotten nor completely forgiven white Americans for the harsh treatment that their ancestors conflicted to the slaves. At the same time, some of the ancient prejudices and myths about slaves have been passed on to young white students by parents who cling to the idea of white racial superiority.

Whites are aware of the danger of an angry Black population, and of how African Americans can present a serious threat to the stability and the union of the states, yet, it's a part of America now, slavery is a part of American history and Slaves descendant are now an element of the society that must be kept under control, since the illusion of freedom, and the mirage of liberty created by the emancipation proclamation, Blacks are confused about their real situation, and they struggle for a better situation, since being slaves descendants is a stain that will affect their reality forever, sure everything seems to tend to prove blacks as free people, the different bureaucratic procedure, and laws stipulate equality regardless of color or race.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. This law is enforced by the Civil Rights Center.

Yet, laws been made exclusively to positively discriminate Black people and minority groups, stipulating an abuse of the Civil Rights act of 1964 which prohibit the use of color, race or national origin as a basis to change the standards used to accept individuals at certain programs and institutions, the affirmative action quotas and different kinds of government assistance made almost exclusively to push colored people forward because of their mental limitations are just a few examples of the race card used by African Americans and other colored, may be considered as a positive residue of slavery for their kind.

Slavery: The eternal race card:

Yet, these laws, for an unknown reason can't be considered a discrimination against the white race, sure whites founded the country and owned slaves, but these are modern days, things changed and minorities are growing, with a better representation on all levels of the society, whites middle class are collapsing into poverty.The reason for the existence of such laws, and that everybody looks the other way and ignore racial injustice called positive discrimination is because it is just that's a characteristic of the American society, that the controversial freedom of Blacks is in the center of this debate, it's called the "race card", it's played in every day's Black people's lives, doesn't matter if they misbehave and bother others, they disturb the public areas supposed to be civilized, by their savage primitive behavior, and they are immune, due to their history and to the fact that people, recently discovered that African Americans are different and it's just impossible to civilize them or to humanize their wild nature, as a result, the ethnic excuse or the race card is invoked in every situation or misconduct involving African Americans, since judging them for such behavior will cause a quasi chaos situation, because Black people natural behavior is just savage.

All these remarks are just an example of the cost of Slavery, and of the mistake of not settling Blacks somewhere else, since now they are the wild animal, the beast created by slavery white have to coexist and deal with. It is obvious that to reverse a process you must go back the steps originating this process, that's what happened with slavery, you don't use people for more than 400 years as slaves, and suddenly when the union of the state is at stake, you made the chantage: freedom for keeping the union, et voila the Slaves are freed, of course, divers abolitionist movement existed, it's the cost of keeping the union, and now they live as second class citizens or colored people, to gain their freedom black people must go back the steps led to their enslavement, a trip back to Africa, or to any other land other the land where they been enslaved for more than 400 years, is the logical rational way into the freedom of the body and the soul. staying in America is just ain't right, unless they have their own land or states specific to African Americans, they will never lose the status as slaves descendants since slavery is a part of American history and a past that hunt all Black American, talking about slavery reparation or June10th to celebrate the emancipation is just another way to keep the chains on their souls. Existing on another land may make a difference and give the status of free people, since they will deracinate from the slavery roots stuck on their ethnic group in the US as slaves descendants, Yet, again everything surrounding their existence says FREEDOM!

Celebrating June 10th: Freedom is always in the Horizons

But are they really free? sure they can go anywhere they want they can own property, they get a paid job, Yet, something is not right.

American had no choice, after the civil war and the emergence of America as a modern nation, they had to be given a status that will not damage the image of America in the world as a free democratic nation.

While in fact, they are a constraint that America has to deal with, with no other option, the different laws and programs favorizing Blacks and facilitating African American integration are just a way to keep them under control, since as cited before, they are capable of causing substantial damages, if provoked in a racial way, it's like if they are the spoiled handicap baby the parents have to care for yet incapable of getting rid of, they are a US property, they exist in the illusion of freedom, to tell the truth, seen by the exterior world, the superficiality of their freedom is evident, an in-depth look into their history and into American History may shed some light on the reality of African American situation as the last slaves' descendants on the planet earth.

Freedom Ain't Free?! They say in America, Confusing.

Freedom is an misused, miss understood word in America, and as stupid as Americans are, they just keep on using it in any appropriate and inappropriate occasion and sentence, while in fact, it's a propaganda lanced by the elite enslaving their ass, fighting for freedoms, they try to steal our freedom, Americans use the word freedom in any and every sentence related to politics, if you ask any American any question about politics, the answer will automatically include the word freedom, we are fighting in Iraq for our freedom, support our troops fighting in Afghanistan for our freedom, the word freedom is just used without knowing it's real meaning and it's implanted in American minds that some people are trying to take their freedoms away, even they use it in plural, freedoms... maybe as cited at the first amendment, like freedoms of religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly, but it makes no sense, talking about Freedoms overseas, and people from overseas trying to steal their freedom, the obsessions of the nation built on slavery, since it's the latest nation to own slaves in modern times, of course we are talking about institutionalized slavery, since slaves exist in a form or another in the world.

They got a scare related to slavery, so they went blind to use freedom in every sentence to, they think, makes them sound intelligent and a civilized nation, and wipe out the scare of slavery from their history. In reality, like cited before, the whole nation is mentally enslaved and brainwashed by the Zionist beast, which occupies their government, serving unknown purposes beyond the natural rise of an empire, in fact, America as an empire is special, 

“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in-between". 

                                                                                                                Oscar Wilde.

Liberia, Where freedom bee aat

So, there is a lot going on beyond the status of Liberty and the White house.

The American Colonization Society, organized Dec. 1816–Jan. 1817, at Washington, D.C., transported free blacks from the United States and settled them in Africa. A country was founded called Liberia. The first American colonists settled on the Grain Coast of Africa in 1822. The settlers considered calling the settlement "Liberia" because they came in search of liberty. The capital city was named Monrovia in honor of the man who financed the exploration - President James Monroe.

Lincoln on Racial Equality:

I am not now, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social or political equality of the white and black races. I am not now nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor of intermarriages with white people. There is a physical difference between the white and the black races which will forever forbid the two races living together on social or political equality. There must be a position of superior and inferior, and I am in favor of assigning the superior position to the white man.

                                                            Lincoln in his speech to Charleston, Illinois, 1858

Abraham Lincoln's Program of Black Resettlement Part 10

This is a series of posts from the cited paper, I will try to divide it into many parts, put titles, and some illustration to fit in blogger and this Blog.

                      From The Journal of Historical Review, Sept.-Oct. 1993 (Vol. 13, No. 5), pages 4-25.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    By Robert Morgan 

Impact of the Proclamation

While abolitionists predictably hailed the final Proclamation, sentiment among northern whites was generally unfavorable. The edict cost the President considerable support, and undoubtedly was a factor in Republican party setbacks in the Congressional elections of 1862. In the army, hardly one Union soldier in ten approved of emancipation, and some officers resigned in protest.

As a work of propaganda, the Proclamation proved effective. To encourage discontent among slaves in the Confederacy, a million copies were distributed in the Union-occupied South and, as hoped, news of it spread rapidly by word of mouth among the Confederacy's slaves, arousing hopes of freedom and encouraging many to escape. The Proclamation "had the desired effect of creating confusion in the South and depriving the Confederacy of much of its valuable laboring force," affirms historian John Hope Franklin.

Finally, in the eyes of many people -- particularly in Europe -- Lincoln's edict made the Union army a liberating force: all slaves in areas henceforward coming under federal control would automatically be free.

Crusade for freedom and democracy: 

The Proclamation greatly strengthened support for the Union cause abroad, especially in Britain and France, where anti-slavery sentiment was strong. In Europe, the edict transformed the conflict into a Union crusade for freedom, and contributed greatly to dashing the Confederacy's remaining hopes of formal diplomatic recognition from Britain and France. "The Emancipation Proclamation," reported Henry Adams from London, "has done more for us [the Union] here than all our former victories and all our diplomacy. It is creating an almost convulsive reaction in our favor all over this country."

End of the Resettlement Efforts

Lincoln continued to press ahead with his plan to resettle blacks in Central America, in spite of opposition from all but one member of his own Cabinet, and the conclusion of a scientific report that Chiriqui coal was "worthless."

Mounting opposition to any resettlement plan also came from abolitionists, who insisted that blacks had a right to remain in the land of their birth. In addition, some Republican party leaders opposed resettlement because they were counting on black political support, which would be particularly important in controlling a defeated South, where most whites would be barred from voting. Others agreed with Republican Senator Charles Sumner, who argued that black laborers were an important part of the national economy, and any attempt to export them "would be fatal to the prosperity of the country." In the (Northern) election campaign of November 1862, emancipation figured as a major issue. Violent mobs of abolitionists opposed those who spoke out in favor of resettlement.

What proved decisive in bringing an end to the Chiriqui project, though, were emphatic protests by the republics that would be directly effected by large-scale resettlement. In Central America, the prospect that millions of blacks would soon be arriving provoked alarm. A sense of panic prevailed in Nicaragua and Honduras, the American consul reported, because of fears of "a dreadful deluge of negro emigration ... from the United States." In August and September, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica protested officially to the American government about the resettlement venture. (Objection from Costa Rica was particularly worrisome because that country claimed part of the Chiriqui territory controlled by Thompson.)

Worthless kind of people

On September 19, envoy Luis Molina, a diplomat who represented the three Central American states, formally explained to American officials the objections of the three countries against the resettlement plan. This venture, he protested, was an attempt to use Central America as a depository for "a plague of which the United States desired to rid themselves." Molina also reminded Seward that, for the USA to remain faithful to its own Monroe Doctrine, it could no more assume that there were lands available in Latin America for colonization than could a European power. The envoy concluded his strong protest by hinting that the republics he represented were prepared to use force to repel what they interpreted as an invasion. Learning later that the resettlement project was still underway, Molina delivered a second formal protest on September 29.

Secretary of State Seward was not able to ignore such protests. After all, why should Central Americans be happy to welcome people of a race that was so despised in the United States? 

Accordingly, on October 7, 1862, Seward prevailed on the President to call a "temporary" halt to the Chiriqui project.

Thus, the emphatic unwillingness of the Central American republics to accept black migrants dealt the decisive blow to the Chiriqui project. At a time when the Union cause was still precarious, Secretary of State Steward was obliged to show special concern for US relations with Latin America.

Lincoln Proposes a Constitutional Amendment

In spite of such obstacles, Lincoln re-affirmed his strong support for gradual emancipation coupled with resettlement in his second annual message to Congress of December 1, 1862. On this occasion he used the word deportation. So serious was he about his plan that he proposed a draft Constitutional Amendment to give it the greatest legal sanction possible. Lincoln told Congress:

I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization.

In this view, I recommend the adoption of the following resolution and articles amendatory to the Constitution of the United States ... "Congress may appropriate money, and otherwise provide, for colonizing free colored persons, with their consent, at any place or places without the United States."

Applications have been made to me by many free Americans of African descent to favor their emigration, with a view to such colonization as was contemplated in recent acts of Congress ... Several of the Spanish American republics have protested against the sending of such colonies [settlers] to their respective territories ... Liberia and Haiti are, as yet, the only countries to which colonists of African descent from here could go with certainty of being received and adopted as citizens ...

Their old masters will gladly give them wages at least until new laborers can be procured; and the freedmen, in turn, will gladly give their labor for the wages, till new homes can be found for them, in congenial climes, and with people of their own blood and race.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves ...

The President's December 1862 proposal had five basic elements:

1. Because slavery was a "domestic institution," and thus the concern of the states alone, they -- and not the federal government -- were to voluntarily emancipate the slaves.
2. Slave-holders would be fully compensated for their loss.
3. The federal government would assist the states, with bonds as grants in aid, in meeting the financial burden of compensation.
4. Emancipation would be carried out gradually: the states would have until the year 1900 to free their slaves.
5. The freed blacks would be resettled outside the United States.

Abraham Lincoln's Program of Black Resettlement Part 9

This is a series of posts from the cited paper, I will try to divide it into many parts, put titles, and some illustration to fit in blogger and this Blog.

                                            From The Journal of Historical Review, Sept.-Oct. 1993 (Vol. 13, No. 5), pages 4-25.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     By Robert Morgan

The Emancipation Proclamation

During the winter and spring 1861-1862, public support grew rapidly for the view that slavery must be abolished everywhere. Lincoln did not ignore the ever louder calls for decisive action.

On June 19, he signed a law abolishing slavery in all the federal territories. At the same time, he was quietly preparing an even more dramatic measure.

At a cabinet meeting on July 22, Lincoln read out the draft text of a document he had prepared -- a proclamation that would give the Confederate states a hundred days to stop their "rebellion" upon threat of declaring all slaves in those states to be free.

The President told his cabinet that he did not want advice on the merits of the proclamation itself -- he had made up his mind about that, he said -- but he would welcome suggestions about how best to implement the edict. For two days cabinet members debated the draft. Only two -- Secretary of State William Seward and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, abolitionists who had challenged Lincoln for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination -- agreed even in part with the proclamation's contents. Seward persuaded the President not to issue it until after a Union military victory (of which so far there had been few), or otherwise, it would appear "the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help."

Emancipation/Colonization: First war for freedom in American history.

Union General McClellan's success on September 17 in holding off the forces of General Lee at Antietam provided a federal victory of sorts, and the waited-for opportunity. Five days later, Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which included a favorable reference to colonization:

I, Abraham Lincoln ... do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States, and each of the states, and the people thereof ...

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave-states, so called, the people whereof may not be then be in rebellion against the United States, and which states, may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate, or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent, or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the Governments existing there, will be continued.

Lincoln then went on to state that on January 1, 1863,

all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free ...

The edict then cited the law passed by Congress on March 13, 1862, which prohibited military personnel from returning escaped slaves, and the second Confiscation Act of July 1862.

Proclamation Limitations

On New Year's Day, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation. Contrary to what its title suggests, however, the presidential edict did not immediately free a single slave. It "freed" only slaves who were under Confederate control, and explicitly exempted slaves in Union-controlled territories, including federal-occupied areas of the Confederacy, West Virginia, and the four slave-holding states that remained in the Union.

The Proclamation, Secretary Seward wryly commented, emancipated slaves where it could not reach them, and left them in bondage where it could have set them free. 

Moreover, because it was issued as a war measure, the Proclamation's long-term validity was uncertain. Apparently, any future President could simply revoke it. "The popular picture of Lincoln using a stroke of the pen to lift the shackles from the limbs of four million slaves is ludicrously false," historian Allan Nevins has noted.

'Military Necessity'

Lincoln himself specifically cited "military necessity" as his reason for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. After more than a year of combat, and in spite of its great advantages in industrial might and numbers, federal forces had still not succeeded in breaking the South. 

At this critical juncture of the war, the President apparently now hoped, a formal edict abolishing slavery in the Confederate states would strike a blow at the Confederacy's ability to wage war by encouraging dissension, escapes, and possibly revolt among its large slave labor force.

As the war progressed, black labor had become ever more critical in the hard-pressed Confederacy. Blacks planted, cultivated and harvested the food that they then transported to the Confederate armies. Blacks raised and butchered the beef, pigs and chicken used to feed the Confederate troops. They wove the cloth and knitted the socks to clothe the grey-uniformed soldiers. As Union armies invaded the South, tearing up railroads and demolishing bridges, free blacks and slaves repaired them. They toiled in the South's factories, shipping yards, and mines. In 1862, the famous Tredegar ironworks advertised for 1,000 slaves. In 1864, there were 4,301 blacks and 2,518 whites in the iron mines of the Confederate states east of the Mississippi.

Blacks also served with the Confederate military forces as mechanics, teamsters, and common laborers. They cared for the sick and scrubbed the wounded in Confederate hospitals. Nearly all of the South's military fortifications were constructed by black laborers. Most of the cooks in the Confederate army were slaves. Of the 400 workers at the Naval Arsenal in Selma, Alabama, in 1865, 310 were blacks. Blacks served with crews of Confederate blockade-runners and stoked the firerooms of the South's warships.

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the legendary cavalry commander, said in a postwar interview: "When I entered the army I took 47 Negroes into the army with me, and 45 of them were surrendered with me ... These boys stayed with me, drove my teams, and better Confederates did not live."

Slavery: The bedrock of the Union.

On several occasions, Lincoln explained his reasons for issuing the Proclamation. On September 13, 1862, the day after the preliminary proclamation was issued, Lincoln met with a delegation of pro-abolitionist Christian ministers, and told them bluntly: "Understand, I raise no objections against it [slavery] on legal or constitutional grounds ... I view the matter [emancipation] as a practical war measure, to be decided upon according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion."

To Salmon Chase, his Treasury Secretary, the President justified the Proclamations' limits: "The original [preliminary] proclamation has no constitutional or legal justification, except as a military measure," he explained. "The exceptions were made because the military necessity did not apply to the exempted localities. Nor does that pressure apply to them now any more than it did then."

Horace Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune, called upon the President to immediately and totally abolish slavery in an emphatic and prominently displayed editorial published August 20, 1862. Lincoln responded in a widely-quoted letter:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union ...

Concern about growing sentiment in the North to end slavery, along with sharp criticism from prominent abolitionists, was apparently another motivating factor for the President. (Abolitionists even feared that the Confederate states might give up their struggle for independence before the January first deadline, and thus preserve the institution of slavery.)

Lincoln assured Edward Stanly, a pro-slavery Southerner he had appointed as military governor of the occupied North Carolina coast, that "the proclamation had become a civil necessity to prevent the radicals from openly embarrassing the government in the conduct of the war."

Abraham Lincoln's Program of Black Resettlement Part 7

This is a series of posts from the cited paper, I will try to divide it into many parts, put titles, and some illustration to fit in blogger and this Blog.

                                                                      From The Journal of Historical Review, Sept.-Oct. 1993 (Vol. 13, No. 5), pages 4-25.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     By Robert Morgan

Growing Clamor for Emancipation

Lincoln's faithful enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law not only filled Washington, DC, jails with runaway slaves waiting to be claimed by their owners, but also enraged many who loathed slavery. In an effort to appease his party's abolitionist faction, Lincoln urged that the United States formally recognize the black republics of Haiti and Liberia, a proposal that Congress accepted.

Lincoln realized that the growing clamor to abolish slavery threatened to seriously jeopardize the support he needed to prosecute the war to preserve the Union. Accordingly, on March 6, 1862, he called on Congress to endorse a carefully worded resolution.

Resolved, that the United States ought to cooperate 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 inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system.

Sanctuary States proposed for wanna be freed slaves: 

In a letter to New York Times editor Henry J. Raymond urging support for the resolution, Lincoln explained that one million dollars, or less than a half-day's cost of the war, would buy all the slaves in Delaware, and that $174 million, or less than 87 days' cost of the war, would purchase all the slaves in the border states and the District of Columbia.

Although the resolution lacked authority of law, and was merely a declaration of intent, it alarmed representatives from the loyal slave-holding border states. Missouri Congressman Frank P. Blair, Jr. (who, in 1868, would campaign as the Democratic party's vice presidential candidate) spoke against the resolution in a speech in the House on April 11, 1862. 

Emancipation of the slaves, he warned, would be a terrible mistake until arrangements were first made to resettle the blacks abroad. Blair spoke of shipping them to areas south of the Rio Grande.

In spite of such opposition, though, moderate Republicans and Democrats joined to approve the resolution, which was passed by Congress and signed by Lincoln on April 10, 1862. Not a single border state lawmaker had voted for the measure, however.

In an effort to assuage such concerns, in July Lincoln called border state Congressmen and Senators to a White House meeting at which he explained that the recently-passed resolution involved no claim of federal authority over slavery in the states, and that it left the issue under state control. Seeking to calm fears that emancipation would suddenly result in many freed Negroes in their midst, he again spoke of resettlement of blacks as the solution. "Room in South America for colonization can be obtained cheaply, and in abundance," said the President. "And when numbers shall be large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed people will not be so reluctant to go."

Congress Votes Funds for Resettlement

In 1860, the 3,185 slaves in the District of Columbia were owned by just two percent of the District's residents. In April 1862, Lincoln arranged to have a bill introduced in Congress that would compensate District slave-holders an average of $300 for each slave. An additional $100,000 was appropriated to be expended under the direction of the President of the United States, to aid in the colonization and settlement of such free persons of African descent now residing in said District, including those to be liberated by this act, as may desire to emigrate to the Republic of Haiti or Liberia, or such other country beyond the limits of the United States as the President may determine.

When he signed the bill into law on April 16, Lincoln stated: "I am gratified that the two principles of compensation, and colonization, are both recognized, and practically applied in the act."

Two months later, as part of the (second) Confiscation Act of July 1862, Congress appropriated an additional half-million dollars for the President's use in resettling blacks who came under Union military control. Rejecting criticism from prominent "radicals" such as Senator Charles Sumner, most Senators and Representatives expressed support for the bold project in a joint resolution declaring that the President is hereby authorized to make provision for the transportation, colonization and settlement in some tropical country beyond the limits of the United States, of such persons of African race, made free by the provisions of this act, as may be willing to emigrate ...

Lincoln now had Congressional authority and $600,000 in authorized funds to proceed with his plan for resettlement.

Obstacles

Serious obstacles remained, however. Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith informed the President that Liberia was out of the question as a destination for resettling blacks because of the inhospitable climate, the unwillingness of blacks to travel so far, and the great expense involved in transporting people such a vast distance. Haiti was ruled out because of the low level of civilization there, because Catholic influence was so strong there, and because of fears that the Spanish might soon take control of the Caribbean country. Those blacks who had expressed a desire to emigrate, Secretary Smith went on to explain, preferred to remain in the western hemisphere. The only really acceptable site was Chiriqui, Smith concluded, because of its relative proximity to the United States, and because of the availability of coal there. Meanwhile, the United States minister in Brazil expressed the view that the country's abundance of land and shortage of labor made it a good site for resettling America's blacks.

In mid-May 1862, Lincoln received a paper from Reverend James Mitchell that laid out arguments for resettling the country's black population:

Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may someday challenge the supremacy of the white man.

Mitchell went on to recommend the gradual deportation of America's blacks to Central America and Mexico. 

"That region had once known a great empire and could become one again," he stated. "This continent could then be divided between a race of mixed bloods and Anglo-Americans." 

Lincoln was apparently impressed with Mitchell's arguments. A short time later, he appointed him as his Commissioner of Emigration.