Posted on 03/05/2008 11:23:56 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Letters Suggest Lincoln Wanted to Buy Slaves for $400 Apiece in 'Gradual Emancipation'
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
AP
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Barely a year into the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suggested buying slaves for $400 apiece under a "gradual emancipation" plan that would bring peace at less cost than several months of hostilities.
The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters penned by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives. The correspondence was digitally scanned and posted online along with easier-to-read transcriptions.
Accompanying them are 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of fellow political and military leaders. They include letters from Vice President Andrew Johnson and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who both succeeded Lincoln in the presidency in the 12 years after his assassination in 1865.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That is an interesting observation about the Chinese. They are number 1 is so many areas that America used to be. China in my eyes resembles an older America a lot. They are the #1 ship builder, #1 user of steel and concrete. Their highway plan is basically a copy of ours, with slight improvements. When its complete it will be a much larger system. They don’t have silly notions about limiting their power. If america wanted to, we could synthesize enough fuel from coal to help protect us in cases of war and to keep money within our own borders. The Chinese already are currently building plants that will make over 400 million barrels of fuel/year from coal. They exploit nuclear power. They negotiate for intellectual rights as often as possible. They look after themselves and what is in their national interests. Our country oth seems to say “sorry” all the time for being rich and powerful.
That is exactly what I am saying.
The Chinese is believing in Manifest Destiny
Americans are ashamed of Manifest Destiny
> IIRC God sent Moses to Egypt to free some slaves. I don’t remember any offers of compensation either. Just a random thought that came to mind.
Funny you should mention Moses: on that occasion the slaves exacted their own compensation by “borrowing” lots of loot from their Egyptian masters en route from Egypt as they were departing.
See Exodus 12:36 “...And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.”
(That would be where all the gold and treasure came from when building the Ark and the Tabernacle)
Dixieping
Lincoln was a very, very shrewd man. Not the most popular guy down here, and some of the things he set in motion have largely destroyed our federalist system of government because of unintended consequences, but there’s no denying he was extremely astute politically, and willing to let nothing stand in his way of reuniting the Union—including, in a few cases, the Constitution.
}:-)4
Southern Illinois was quite different culturally from the Chicago area at the time of the war. May still be for all I know. In contrast to much of the rest of the state, Chicago was essentially a sanctuary city for escaped slaves prior to the war.
When a few fugitive slaves were caught in Chicago in early April 1861, they were quickly taken out of the city for hearings in Springfield before a magistrate friend of Lincoln's. He shipped the captured fugitives back to their owners in Missouri. Whereupon, one thousand fugitive slaves living in Chicago left en masse for Canada. Apparently, they realized the new administration was going to apply the fugitive slave law even in the sanctuary city of Chicago.
I found the following prices in the January 29, 1850 State Gazette of Austin, Texas:
- Clinton, Georgia. 60 negroes sold, all field hands young and old included. Average price $905
- Hawkinsville, Georgia. Three male field hands sold for $1,380 to $1,510 apiece.
- Columbus, Georgia. Prices ranged from a low of $875 for one field hand to $2,010 for a blacksmith. Most field hands sold for about $1,500.
Perhaps slave prices were lower in the northern states that Lincoln's proposal covered.
That issue of the State Gazette also included a sale of 17 slaves for an average price of $707. This sale included seven infants and children. Clearly children and infants brought lower prices.
No. It can be said that they were sick of Northern Sh*t, and got the hell out. Lincoln was a good reason to leave.
And yes, Lincoln understood that by issuing the Proclamation, it made it impossible for both France and England to recognize the South, for that would require that they recognize slavery. It also killed developing efforts by England and France to assist in negotiations between North and South to end the war
After the Proclamation was issued, and the abolitionists attacked him for not freeing all slaves, he said that the issue of the slavery in loyal States would be resolved (perhaps by purchase) after the fighting was over.
Some of the commenters on this thread would profit from reading or listening to Foote's work.
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