In January 1849 Congressman Lincoln drafted his own bill to abolish slavery in Washington DC, with compensation for slaveholders.
January 10, 1849. The draft was entitled, "A bill for an act to abolish slavery in the district of Columbia, by the consent of the free white people of said District, and with compensation to owners."
What happened? Didn't the free white people of the District consent?
Lincoln claimed "that he was authorized to say, that of about fifteen of the leading citizens of the District of Columbia to whom this proposition had been submitted, there was not one but who approved of the adoption of such a proposition. He did not wish to be misunderstood. He did not know whether or not they would vote for this bill on the first Monday of April; but he repeated, that out of fifteen persons to whom it had been submitted, he had authority to say that every one of them desired that some proposition like this should pass." The record reflects, "[Several voices: 'Who are they? Give us their names.']"
The draft included the following provisions:
Section 4. That all persons now within said District lawfully held as slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said District, shall remain such, at the will of their respective owners, their heirs and legal representatives: Provided that any such owner, or his legal representative, may at any time receive from the treasury of the United States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free: and provided further that the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall be a board for determining the value of such slaves as their owners may desire to emancipate under this section; and whose duty it shall be to hold a session for the purpose, on the first monday of each calendar month; to receive all applications; and, on satisfactory evidence in each case, that the person presented for valuation, is a slave, and of the class in this section mentioned, and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave at his or her full cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the treasury for the amount; and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.Section 5 That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to provide active and efficient means to arrest, and deliver up to their owners, all fugitive slaves escaping into said District.
Lerone Bennett, Jr. observed, "What did this mean to a slave living in the District in January 1849? It meant that Abraham Lincoln had given him a life sentence and that the slaveowner could hold and whip him or her for seventy or eighty years, or could at his, the slaveowner's discretion, free him at the peak of the market and receive his 'full value.'"
On January 13, 1849 Lincoln gave notice of his intent to introduce his bill. He never did introduce it. He never identified the 15 anonymous consultees who purportedly gave unanimous support.
It was in 1849-50 that the Lincoln family employed the services of Ruth Burns, later known as Ruth Stanton, the slave property of John Bradford. Said Ruth, "Mrs. Lincoln belonger to the Episcopal Church, and so did the Bradfords... Mrs. Bradford sent me over to help Mrs. Lincoln every Saturday, for she had no servant and had to do her own housework." And in 1849, age 14, Ruth Burns was sent "to live with the Lincolns." Mrs. Lincoln told the Bradfords, "One thing is certain; if Mr. Lincoln should happen to die, his spirit will never find me living outside the boundaries of a slave state."
Mr. Lincoln addressed the abolition issue repeatedly.
October 16, 1854:
I wish to MAKE and to KEEP the distinction between the EXISTING institution, and the EXTENSION of it, so broad, and so clear, that no honest man can misunderstand me, and no dishonest one, successfully misrepresent me. (CW 2:248, Lincoln's emphasis)
August 21, 1858, at the first Lincoln-Douglas debate:
I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. (CW 3:16, italics added)
August 31, 1855:
When I was at Washington I voted for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty times, and I never heard of any one attempting to unwhig me for that. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery, (CW 2:323, Lincoln's emphasis).
September 4, 1858:
We have no right to interfere with slavery in the States. We only want to restrict it to where it is. (CW 3:87)
September 16, 1858
We must not disturb slavery in the states where it exists, because the constitution, and the pease of the country, both forbid us. (CW 3:435)
October 7, 1858:
Nothing in the Constitution or laws of any State can destroy a right distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution of the United States.The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution of the United States;
Therefore, nothing in the Constitution or laws of any State can destroy the right of property in a slave. (CW 3:231)
October 13, 1858
I expressly declared in my opening speech, that I had neither the inclination to exercise, nor the belief in the existence of the right to interfere with the States of Kentucky or Virginia in doing as they pleased with slavery or any other existing institution. (CW 3:277)
Octber 15, 1858:
Now I have upon all occasions declared as strongly as Judge [Stephen] Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing institution of slavery. (CW 3:300)
July 10, 1858:
I have said a hundred times and I have no no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination in the people of the free States to enter into the slave States, and interfere with the question of slavery at all. I have said that always. (CW 2:492, italics added).
If he said it a hundred times, he said it a thousand times.
June 23, 1858
I have declared a thousand times, and now repeat that, in my opinion, neither the General government, nor any other power outside of the slave states, can constitutionally or rightfully interfere with slaves or slavery where it already exists.. (CW 2:471)
September 13, 1858
He asserted positively, and proved conclusively by his former acts and speeches that he was not in favor of interfering with slavery in the States where it exists, nor ever had been. (CW 3:96)
And so yet again our typical Lost Cause Liar, woodpusher, here argues that since Lincoln was not a modern "woke" Leftist 1619er, therefore Lincoln was not "anti-slavery" enough.
But the truth remains that young Lincoln, like our Founders, was anti-slavery, wanted it abolished peacefully, lawfully, and did what he could to make that happen, in 1849, in Washington, DC.
Lincoln's anti-slavery opinions were, indeed, less radical than those of fellow Republicans like John Fremont, so Lincoln was considered a "moderate" on slavery, but that didn't matter to Southern Democrat Fire Eaters who thought any Republican anti-slavery opinions as plenty grounds enough to justify secession from the United States.