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 6

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 Chiriqui Resettlement Plan

Even before he took office, Lincoln was pleased to note widespread public support for "colonization" of the country's blacks. 

"In 1861-1862, there was widespread support among conservative Republicans and Democrats for the colonization abroad of Negroes emancipated by the war," 

historian James M. McPherson has noted. At the same time, free blacks in parts of the North were circulating a petition asking Congress to purchase a tract of land in Central America as a site for their resettlement.

In spite of the pressing demands imposed by the war, Lincoln soon took time to implement his long-standing plan for resettling blacks outside the United States.

Panama: The Coal deal

Ambrose W. Thompson, a Philadelphian who had grown rich in coastal shipping, provided the new president with what seemed to be a good opportunity. Thompson had obtained control of several hundred thousand acres in the Chiriqui region of what is now Panama, and had formed the "Chiriqui Improvement Company." He proposed transporting liberated blacks from the United States to the Central American region, where they would mine the coal that was supposedly there in abundance. This coal would be sold to the US Navy, with the resulting profits used to sustain the black colony, including development of plantations of cotton, sugar, coffee, and rice. The Chiriqui project would also help to extend US commercial dominance over tropical America.

Negotiations to realize the plan began in May 1861, and on August 8, Thompson made a formal proposal to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells to deliver coal from Chiriqui at one-half the price the government was then paying. Meanwhile, Lincoln had referred the proposal to his brother-in-law, Ninian W. Edwards, who, on August 9, 1861, enthusiastically endorsed the proposed contract.

Appointing a commission to investigate the Thompson proposal, Lincoln referred its findings to Francis P. Blair, Sr. Endorsing a government contract with the Chiriqui Improvement Company even more strongly than Edwards had, the senior Blair believed the main purpose of such a contract should be to utilize the area controlled by Thompson to "solve" the black question. He repeated Jefferson's view that blacks would ultimately have to be deported from the United States, reviewed Lincoln's own endorsement of resettlement, and discussed the activities of his son, Missouri Representative Francis P. Blair, Jr., on behalf of deportation. Blair concluded his lengthy report with a recommendation that Henry T. Blow, US Minister to Venezuela, be sent to Chiriqui to make an examination for the government.

Lincoln ordered his Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, to release Thompson from his military duties so he could escort Blow to Central America.

for the purpose of reconnaissance of, and a report upon the lands, and harbors of the Isthmus of Chiriqui; the fitness of the lands to the colonization of the Negro race; the practicability of connecting the said harbors by a railroad; and the works which will be necessary for the Chiriqui Company to erect to protect the colonists as they may arrive, as well as for the protection and defense of the harbors at the termini of said road.

Cameron was to provide Thompson with the necessary equipment and assistants. The mission was to be carried out under sealed orders with every precaution for secrecy, because Lincoln did not have legal authority to undertake such an expedition.

While Blow was investigating the Chiriqui area, Lincoln called Delaware Congressman George Fisher to the White House in November 1861 to discuss compensated emancipation of the slaves in that small state -- where the 1860 census had enumerated only 507 slave-holders, owning fewer than 1,800 slaves. The President asked Fisher to determine whether the Delaware legislature could be persuaded to free slaves in the state if the government compensated the owners for them. Once the plan proved feasible in Delaware, the President hoped, he might be able to persuade the other border states and, eventually, even the secessionist states, to adopt it. With assistance from Lincoln, Fisher drew up a bill to be presented to the state legislature when it met in late December. It provided that when the federal government had appropriated money to pay an average of $500 for each slave, emancipation would go into effect. As soon as it was made public, though, an acrimonious debate broke out, with party rancor and pro-slavery sentiment combining to defeat the proposed legislation.

'Absolute Necessity'

In his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 1861, President Lincoln proposed that persons liberated by the fighting should be deemed free and that, in any event, steps be taken for colonizing [them] ... at some place, or places, in a climate congenial to them. It might be well to consider, too, whether the free colored people already in the United States could not, so far as individuals may desire, be included in such colonization.

This effort, Lincoln recognized, "may involve the acquiring of territory, and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be expended in the territorial acquisition." Some form of resettlement, he said, amounts to an "absolute necessity."

Mise au point

The introduction to TaMere Network videos was a little bit tending to be offending some religious believes, I didn't give it a lot of attention before, but recently I judged that some people may find it offending some of their croyance...so I adjusted it suppressing the controversial part, and I want to present my apology to whoever felt offended by that passage, even though my vids don't get a lot of traffic, just the fact that it was en line makes it targeting people souls and consciences...Basically Me as Franco TaMere or as Le Puniisher, as well as all my team member we don't advocate a specific religious belief, since religion is the way used by human beings to make peace with the creator, different forms been used since the beginning of time, more or less controversial, also religion is known for been used to manipulate and control stupid masses of people, often using and taking advantage of their primitive immature mind, the case of Christianity may be used in this case, believing in the virgin birth and that Jesus is Gods son is just a scenario that may be classed as paranormal, there was prophets and saints all along the History of Humanity, none of them claimed some scyfy stuff, people at that time were so naive, their mind so primitive, and docile and they accepted the idea that was transmitted through history, at that time there was ignorance, people believed in myths and Human kind mind wasn't as mature as today, people of that period will implement the Idea in their minds and as all other wrong interpretation to any event at that time, they stuck with the conclusion of the virgin birth, and Gods son, how naive people at that time was, they presume the Creator having a son, the parenthood and human procreation is not a divine traits, but for people of that time who believed in dragons and ghouls, it was easy for them to accept the Idea, at that time God wasn't known as le Creator as we know it today, but as a supreme being often personalized...

The logical extension to their naive mind is that he got a son, the Idea was accepted and widespread. Jesus was crucified it was a form of punishment that time, I doubt at that time even though the state of mind of people, that he will be crucified by the Romans if they believed that he is really Gods son, so basically the opinion must be divided, and it seems that he is a prophet like the many who was through Humanity history and that some of people at that time, upon the ambiguity of his birth and confused about the circumstance came to the naive conclusion that he is Gods son, Humanizing the creator, is just naive and stupid, even the more plausible explanation of the holy spirit, still humanizing God, which is inconceivable and a form of Paganism, which is not strange at that time...but when people at this time still hold on such belief, that's just none sense, one may argue, how do you want to change the foundation and bedrock of the Christian religion, people believed this since more than 2 millenniums and they are not ready to change, or maybe, they dont want to change this way of perception, because it serves their interests and agenda, religion been used to control and manipulate people since forever, war waged by the name of religion, people been submitted mentally and physically to the conqueror religion, the bizarre part is that people who are high placed in the religion sphere, are the less convinced and believer in what their religion preach...

I'm talking about Christianity, Islam and Jewish approaches are more reasonable than Christianity, plus the bible is in constant mutation adapting to the new era and the agenda to the high placed individual at the clergy, I had the chance to interact with some Christians, occupying preaching positions at some churches, ....and it seems that they don't believe what they preach at all, they do it as a duty, that's all, it seems that they do it to manipulate and control feeble minded people, genre minorities and color people, for a better control, same as in Jesus time, when there was naive people who believed that Jesus is Gods son, nowadays, there is people with the same state of mind that churches used by the government prey on, to take control of and manipulate, the example of submitting native Americans to Christianity, taking their land and making them second class citizens under control with a cross tattooed all over their body and hanged around their neck, and they are more faithful than white christian, because of their naivety and primitive etat d'esprit, the same example may be cited for Africans, converting them to Christianity was a good shortcut into controlling them.

Buddhism, I consider it a form of Paganism, and the same process been used to control Asians, Christian missionaries are so developed and improved over the years, to present an convincing even brainwashing presentation and conversion into Christianity.

P.S. My knowledge about religion is limited, some information presented in this article may not be accurate, best effort been made to present correct facts.

This article is intended to correct a passage that some may judged offensive and to present an overall idea about the religion as it evolved through History.

Here is the Intro video in it's both version, may tolerance and compassion guide our efforts.