[Non-Sequitur]

And had there been a compensated plan, by legislation since a Constitutional amendment would have been impossible to pass, it would have quickly become a scheme to dump older slaves past their working life while keeping the profitable ones. Many slave states had laws against emancipating slaves in general, but against emancipating elderly slaves in particular. This was done not through any sense of altruism but to keep counties from having to deal with elderly free blacks who might be a drain on the county resources. And those who sold off their slaves to the government, what would have kept them from buying younger replacements with the money received? THe only way it would have worked would have been as part of an overall emancipation plan that ended slavery on a set schedule. And that still would have taken a Constitutional amenment. One that never would have passed out of the Senate.

[4CJ]

Certainly any legislation/amendment could have included a fixed termination date, and included a provision that in exchange for compensation the person could no longer purchase slaves, or requirements that all their slaves be freed as a group. The possibilities were endless.