Monday, March 24, 1862.Washington, DC.
| Cong. Colfax (Ind.) informs President that Horace Greeley will
support gradual, compensated emancipation. Willard H. Smith,
Schuyler Colfax: The Changing Fortunes of a Political Idol
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Collections, 1952), 167.
[Irwin deposits $87.50 in Springfield Marine Bank, rent received from L. A.
Tilton. Pratt, Personal
Finances, 165.] President Lincoln writes to New York
Tribune editor Horace Greeley regarding Lincoln's recent call to
Congress for a resolution to encourage the "abolishment of slavery." Lincoln
proposes that the government "compensate for the inconveniences public and
private, produced by such change of system." He writes, "I am a little uneasy
about the abolishment of slavery in this District, not but I would be glad to
see it abolished, but as to the time and manner of doing it. . . . I would like
the bill to have the three main
features—gradual—compensation—and vote of the people."
Message to Congress, 6 March 1862,
CW, 5:144-146; Horace Greeley to Abraham Lincoln, 24 March 1862,
Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC;
Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley,
24 March 1862, CW, 5:169.
[Tad Lincoln has recovered enough to "play about," and Mary Lincoln continues her slow recovery from the loss of Willie Lincoln. National Republican, 24 March 1862, 3:1.] |