Emancipation, Compensated

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EMANCIPATION, COMPENSATED

EMANCIPATION, COMPENSATED, was a device for eliminating slavery by having the government buy the slaves from their white masters, usually proposed in connection with schemes for colonizing freed slaves. The constitutional convention of Virginia in 1829–30 proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving Congress the power to appropriate money to purchase and colonize slaves. Others argued that profits from public lands be used to emancipate and transport slaves. After the decline of the colonization movement, interest in compensated emancipation faded. Strict constructionists believed it to be unconstitutional, and radical abolitionists believed that slaveowners did not deserve compensation.

The Republican Party revived interest in compensated emancipation. The party's 1860 platform recognized it as desirable where slaves were legally held. President Abraham Lincoln believed that it was just, that it distributed fairly the financial burden of emancipation, and that it was cheaper than war. In a special message to Congress, on 6 March 1862, he asked for the adoption of a joint resolution pledging financial aid to any state adopting gradual emancipation. The resolution was passed, and Lincoln tried to persuade the border states to accept the offer, but none of them did. The only successful attempt at compensated emancipation was in the District of Columbia. Lincoln's final effort on behalf of compensated emancipation was his 1 December 1862 proposal to permit the issuance of government bonds to any state adopting gradual emancipation. The Emancipation Proclamation ended all interest in the scheme.