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 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.
Sec. 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.
Sec. 6. That the election officers within said District of Columbia are
hereby empowered and required to open polls, at all the usual places of
holding elections, on the first Monday of April next, and receive the vote
of every free white male citizen above the age of twenty-one years, having
resided within said District for the period of one year or more next
preceding the time of such voting for or against this act, to proceed in
taking said votes, in all respects not herein specified, as at elections
under the municipal laws, and with as little delay as possible to transmit
correct statements of the votes so cast to the President of the United
States; and it shall be the duty of the President to canvass said votes
immediately, and if a majority of them be found to be for this act, to
forthwith issue his proclamation giving notice of the fact; and this
act shall only be in full force and effect on and after the day of such
proclamation.
Sec. 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime, whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall in no wise be prohibited
by this act.
Sec. 8. That for all the purposes of this act, the jurisdictional limits
of Washington are extended to all parts of the District of Columbia not
now included within the present limits of Georgetown.
BILL GRANTING LANDS TO THE STATES TO MAKE RAILWAYS AND CANALS
REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 13, 1849.
Mr. Lincoln said he had not risen for the purpose of making a speech, but
only for the purpose of meeting some of the objections to the bill. If he
understood those objections, the first was that if the bill were to become
a law, it would be used to lock large portions of the public lands from
sale, without at last effecting the ostensible object of the bill--the
construction of railroads in the new States; and secondly, that Congress
would be forced to the abandonment of large portions of the public lands
to the States for which they might be reserved, without their paying for
them. This he understood to be the substance of the objections of the
gentleman from Ohio to the passage of the bill.
If he could get the attention of the House for a few minutes, he would ask
gentlemen to tell us what motive could induce any State Legislature, or
individual, or company of individuals, of the new States, to expend money
in surveying roads which they might know they could not make.
(A voice: They are not required to make the road.)
Mr. Lincoln continued: That was not the case he was making. What motive
would tempt any set of men to go into an extensive survey of a railroad
which they did not intend to make? What good would it do? Did men act
without motive? Did business men commonly go into an expenditure of money
which could be of no account to them? He generally found that men who have
money were disposed to hold on to it, unless they could see something to
be made by its investment. He could not see what motive of advantage to
the new States could be subserved by merely keeping the public lands out
of market, and preventing their settlement. As far as he could see, the
new States were wholly without any motive to do such a thing. This, then,
he took to be a good answer to the first objection.
In relation to the fact assumed, that after a while, the new States having
got hold of the public lands to a certain extent, they would turn round
and compel Congress to relinquish all claim to them, he had a word to say,
by way of recurring to the history of the past. When was the time to come
(he asked) when the States in which the public lands were situated would
compose a majority of the representation in Congress, or anything like
it? A majority of Representatives would very soon reside west of the
mountains, he admitted; but would they all come from States in which
the public lands were situated? They certainly would not; for, as these
Western States grew strong in Congress, the public lands passed away from
them, and they got on the other side of the question; and the gentleman
from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] was an example attesting that fact.
Mr. Vinton interrupted here to say that he had stood on this question just
where he was now, for five and twenty years.
Mr. Lincoln was not making an argument for the purpose of convicting the
gentleman of any impropriety at all. He was speaking of a fact in history,
of which his State was an example. He was referring to a plain principle
in the nature of things. The State of Ohio had now grown to be a giant.
She had a large delegation on that floor; but was she now in favor of
granting lands to the new States, as she used to be? The New England
States, New York, and the Old Thirteen were all rather quiet upon the
subject; and it was seen just now that a member from one of the new States
was the first man to rise up in opposition. And such would be with the
history of this question for the future. There never would come a time
when the people residing in the States embracing the public lands would
have the entire control of this subject; and so it was a matter of
certainty that Congress would never do more in this respect than what
would be dictated by a just liberality. The apprehension, therefore,
that the public lands were in danger of being wrested from the General
Government by the strength of the delegation in Congress from the new
States, was utterly futile. There never could be such a thing. If we take
these lands (said he) it will not be without your consent. We can never
outnumber you. The result is that all fear of the new States turning
against the right of Congress to the public domain must be effectually
quelled, as those who are opposed to that interest must always hold a vast
majority here, and they will never surrender the whole or any part of
the public lands unless they themselves choose to do so. That was all he
desired to say.
ON FEDERAL POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
WASHINGTON, March 9, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
DEAR SIR: Colonel R. D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of
Congress from Illinois of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirty-first. We
have reason to think the Whigs of that State hold us responsible, to some
extent, for the appointments which may be made of our citizens. We do not
know you personally, and our efforts to you have so far been unavailing.
I therefore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for him
and myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed in
your department, to an office either in or out of the State, we most
respectfully ask to be heard.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
MORE POLITICAL PATRONAGE REQUESTS
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF STATE.
SIR:--There are several applicants for the office of United States
Marshal for the District of Illinois. Among the most prominent of them are
Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle, and Thomas, Esq., of Galena. Mr. Bond
I know to be personally every way worthy of the office; and he is very
numerously and most respectably recommended. His papers I send to you; and
I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration.
Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the
appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
(Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.)
In this and the accompanying envelope are the recommendations of about
two hundred good citizens of all parts of Illinois, that Benjamin Bond be
appointed marshal for that district. They include the names of nearly
all our Whigs who now are, or have ever been, members of the State
Legislature, besides forty-six of the Democratic members of the present
Legislature, and many other good citizens. I add that from personal
knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office, and
qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that the appointment
of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especial attention and
consideration for his claims, and for the opinions expressed in his favor
by those over whom I can claim no superiority.
A. LINCOLN.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849
HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
DEAR SIR:--I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed receiver of the
land-office at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I cannot
say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper
discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very warm partisan,
and openly and actively opposed to the election of General Taylor. I
also understand that since General Taylor's election he has received
a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having expired.
Whether this is true the records of the department will show. I may add
that the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal.
I give no opinion of my own, but state the facts, and express the hope
that the department will act in this as in all other cases on some proper
general rule.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S.--The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly if
not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig
representative, claims no voice in the appointment. A. L.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
DEAR SIR:--I recommend that Turner R. King, now of Pekin, Illinois, be
appointed register of the land-office at this place whenever there shall
be a vacancy.
I do not know that Mr. Barret, the present incumbent, has failed in the
proper discharge of any of his duties in the office. He is a decided
partisan, and openly and actively opposed the election of General Taylor.
I understand, too, that since the election of General Taylor, Mr. Barret
has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having
expired. Whether this be true, the records of the department will show.
Whether he should be removed I give no opinion, but merely express the
wish that the department may act upon some proper general rule, and that
Mr. Barret's case may not be made an exception to it.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S.-The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly if
not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig
representative, claims no voice in the appointment. A. L.
TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7,1849.
HON. POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
DEAR Sir:--I recommend that Abner Y. Ellis be appointed postmaster at
this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. J. R. Diller, the present
incumbent, I cannot say has failed in the proper discharge of any of
the duties of the office. He, however, has been an active partisan in
opposition to us.
Located at the seat of government of the State, he has been, for part
if not the whole of the time he has held the office, a member of the
Democratic State Central Committee, signing his name to their addresses
and manifestoes; and has been, as I understand, reappointed by Mr. Polk
since General Taylor's election. These are the facts of the case as I
understand them, and I give no opinion of mine as to whether he should
or should not be removed. My wish is that the department may adopt some
proper general rule for such cases, and that Mr. Diller may not be made an
exception to it, one way or the other.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S.--This office, with its delivery, is entirely within my district; so
that Colonel Baker, the other Whig representative, claims no voice in the
appointment.L.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
DEAR SIR:--I recommend that William Butler be appointed pension agent
for the Illinois agency, when the place shall be vacant. Mr. Hurst, the
present incumbent, I believe has performed the duties very well. He is a
decided partisan, and I believe expects to be removed. Whether he shall, I
submit to the department. This office is not confined to my district, but
pertains to the whole State; so that Colonel Baker has an equal right with
myself to be heard concerning it. However, the office is located here;
and I think it is not probable that any one would desire to remove from a
distance to take it.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO THOMPSON.
SPRINGFIELD, April 25, 1849.
DEAR THOMPSON: A tirade is still kept up against me here for recommending
T. R. King. This morning it is openly avowed that my supposed influence at
Washington shall be broken down generally, and King's prospects defeated
in particular. Now, what I have done in this matter I have done at the
request of you and some other friends in Tazewell; and I therefore ask you
to either admit it is wrong or come forward and sustain me. If the truth
will permit, I propose that you sustain me in the following manner: copy
the inclosed scrap in your own handwriting and get everybody (not three or
four, but three or four hundred) to sign it, and then send it to me. Also,
have six, eight or ten of our best known Whig friends there write to me
individual letters, stating the truth in this matter as they understand
it. Don't neglect or delay in the matter. I understand information of an
indictment having been found against him about three years ago, for gaming
or keeping a gaming house, has been sent to the department. I shall try
to take care of it at the department till your action can be had and
forwarded on.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
SPRINGFIELD ILLINOIS. May 10, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
DEAR SIR:--I regret troubling you so often in relation to the land-offices
here, but I hope you will perceive the necessity of it, and excuse me. On
the 7th of April I wrote you recommending Turner R. King for register, and
Walter Davis for receiver. Subsequently I wrote you that, for a private
reason, I had concluded to transpose them. That private reason was the
request of an old personal friend who himself desired to be receiver,
but whom I felt it my duty to refuse a recommendation. He said if I would
transpose King and Davis he would be satisfied. I thought it a whim, but,
anxious to oblige him, I consented. Immediately he commenced an assault
upon King's character, intending, as I suppose, to defeat his appointment,
and thereby secure another chance for himself. This double offence of bad
faith to me and slander upon a good man is so totally outrageous that I
now ask to have King and Davis placed as I originally recommended,--that
is, King for register and Davis for receiver.
An effort is being made now to have Mr. Barret, the present register,
retained. I have already said he has done the duties of the office well,
and I now add he is a gentleman in the true sense. Still, he submits to be
the instrument of his party to injure us. His high character enables him
to do it more effectually. Last year he presided at the convention which
nominated the Democratic candidate for Congress in this district, and
afterward ran for the State Senate himself, not desiring the seat, but
avowedly to aid and strengthen his party. He made speech after speech with
a degree of fierceness and coarseness against General Taylor not quite
consistent with his habitually gentlemanly deportment. At least one (and
I think more) of those who are now trying to have him retained was himself
an applicant for this very office, and, failing to get my recommendation,
now takes this turn.
In writing you a third time in relation to these offices, I stated that I
supposed charges had been forwarded to you against King, and that I would
inquire into the truth of them. I now send you herewith what I suppose
will be an ample defense against any such charges. I ask attention to all
the papers, but particularly to the letters of Mr. David Mack, and the
paper with the long list of names. There is no mistake about King's being
a good man. After the unjust assault upon him, and considering the just
claims of Tazewell County, as indicated in the letters I inclose you, it
would in my opinion be injustice, and withal a blunder, not to appoint
him, at least as soon as any one is appointed to either of the offices
here.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO J. GILLESPIE.
SPRINGFIELD, ILL., May 19, 1849.
DEAR GILLESPIE:
Butterfield will be commissioner of the Gen'l Land Office, unless
prevented by strong and speedy efforts. Ewing is for him, and he is only
not appointed yet because Old Zach. hangs fire.
I have reliable information of this. Now, if you agree with me that this
appointment would dissatisfy rather than gratify the Whigs of this
State, that it would slacken their energies in future contests, that his
appointment in '41 is an old sore with them which they will not patiently
have reopened,--in a word that his appointment now would be a fatal
blunder to the administration and our political men here in Illinois,
write Crittenden to that effect. He can control the matter. Were you to
write Ewing I fear the President would never hear of your letter. This may
be mere suspicion. You might write directly to Old Zach. You will be the
best judge of the propriety of that. Not a moment's time is to be lost.
Let this be confidential except with Mr. Edwards and a few others whom you
know I would trust just as I do you.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
REQUEST FOR GENERAL LAND-OFFICE APPPOINTMENT
TO E. EMBREE.
[Confidential]
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, May 25, 1849.
HON. E. EMBREE
DEAR SIR:--I am about to ask a favor of you, one which I hope will not
cost you much. I understand the General Land-Office is about to be given
to Illinois, and that Mr. Ewing desires Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, to
be the man. I give you my word, the appointment of Mr. Butterfield will
be an egregious political blunder. It will give offence to the whole Whig
party here, and be worse than a dead loss to the administration of so much
of its patronage. Now, if you can conscientiously do so, I wish you to
write General Taylor at once, saying that either I or the man I recommend
should in your opinion be appointed to that office, if any one from
Illinois shall be. I restrict my request to Illinois because you may have
a man from your own State, and I do not ask to interfere with that.
Your friend as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
REQUEST FOR A PATENT
IMPROVED METHOD OF LIFTING VESSELS OVER SHOALS.
Application for Patent:
What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is
the combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a
vessel with the main shaft or shafts by means of the sliding spars, which
pass down through the buoyant chambers and are made fast to their bottoms
and the series of ropes and pulleys or their equivalents in such a manner
that by turning the main shaft or shafts in one direction the buoyant
chambers will be forced downward into the water, and at the same time
expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement
of water, and by turning the shafts in an opposite direction the buoyant
chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury.
A. LINCOLN.
TO THE SECRETARY OF INTERIOR.
SPRINGFIELD, ILL., June 3, 1849
HON. SECRETARY OF INTERIOR.
DEAR SIR:--Vandalia, the receiver's office at which place is the subject
of the within, is not in my district; and I have been much perplexed to
express any preference between Dr. Stapp and Mr. Remann. If any one man
is better qualified for such an office than all others, Dr. Stapp is that
man; still, I believe a large majority of the Whigs of the district prefer
Mr. Remann, who also is a good man. Perhaps the papers on file will enable
you to judge better than I can. The writers of the within are good men,
residing within the land district.
Your obt. servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO W. H. HERNDON.
SPRINGFIELD, June 5, 1849.
DEAR WILLIAM:--Your two letters were received last night. I have a great
many letters to write, and so cannot write very long ones. There must be
some mistake about Walter Davis saying I promised him the post-office.
I did not so promise him. I did tell him that if the distribution of the
offices should fall into my hands, he should have something; and if
I shall be convinced he has said any more than this, I shall be
disappointed. I said this much to him because, as I understand, he is of
good character, is one of the young men, is of the mechanics, and always
faithful and never troublesome; a Whig, and is poor, with the support of a
widow mother thrown almost exclusively on him by the death of his brother.
If these are wrong reasons, then I have been wrong; but I have certainly
not been selfish in it, because in my greatest need of friends he was
against me, and for Baker.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S. Let the above be confidential.
TO J. GILLESPIE.
DEAR GILLESPIE:
Mr. Edwards is unquestionably offended with me in connection with the
matter of the General Land-Office. He wrote a letter against me which was
filed at the department.
The better part of one's life consists of his friendships; and, of them,
mine with Mr. Edwards was one of the most cherished. I have not been
false to it. At a word I could have had the office any time before the
department was committed to Mr. Butterfield, at least Mr. Ewing and the
President say as much. That word I forbore to speak, partly for other
reasons, but chiefly for Mr. Edwards' sake, losing the office (that he
might gain it) I was always for; but to lose his friendship, by the effort
for him, would oppress me very much, were I not sustained by the utmost
consciousness of rectitude. I first determined to be an applicant,
unconditionally, on the 2nd of June; and I did so then upon being informed
by a telegraphic despatch that the question was narrowed down to Mr. B and
myself, and that the Cabinet had postponed the appointment three weeks,
for my benefit. Not doubting that Mr. Edwards was wholly out of the
question I, nevertheless, would not then have become an applicant had I
supposed he would thereby be brought to suspect me of treachery to him.
Two or three days afterwards a conversation with Levi Davis convinced me
Mr. Edwards was dissatisfied; but I was then too far in to get out. His
own letter, written on the 25th of April, after I had fully informed
him of all that had passed, up to within a few days of that time, gave
assurance I had that entire confidence from him which I felt my uniform
and strong friendship for him entitled me to. Among other things it says,
"Whatever course your judgment may dictate as proper to be pursued, shall
never be excepted to by me." I also had had a letter from Washington,
saying Chambers, of the Republic, had brought a rumor then, that Mr. E had
declined in my favor, which rumor I judged came from Mr. E himself, as I
had not then breathed of his letter to any living creature. In saying
I had never, before the 2nd of June, determined to be an applicant,
unconditionally, I mean to admit that, before then, I had said
substantially I would take the office rather than it should be lost to
the State, or given to one in the State whom the Whigs did not want; but
I aver that in every instance in which I spoke of myself, I intended to
keep, and now believe I did keep, Mr. E above myself. Mr. Edwards' first
suspicion was that I had allowed Baker to overreach me, as his friend,
in behalf of Don Morrison. I knew this was a mistake; and the result has
proved it. I understand his view now is, that if I had gone to open war
with Baker I could have ridden him down, and had the thing all my own way.
I believe no such thing. With Baker and some strong man from the Military
tract & elsewhere for Morrison, and we and some strong man from the
Wabash & elsewhere for Mr. E, it was not possible for either to succeed.
I believed this in March, and I know it now. The only thing which gave
either any chance was the very thing Baker & I proposed,--an adjustment
with themselves.