Lincoln persuades local officials to abolish slavery: A WV Sesquicentennial Moment
By Beth Vorhees & The WV Division of Culture and History
July 9, 2012 ·
On July 12, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln met at the White House with senators and delegates from slaveholding states along the Union and Confederate border to try to persuade them to abolish slavery within their districts.
The
president told the men who were invited to the executive mansion that “Our
common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest
action to bring a speedy relief.”
To
support his push for gradual emancipation, Lincoln suggested that there
was plenty of cheap land in South America where former slaves could
colonize. “And when numbers shall be large enough to be company and
encouragement for one another,” the president said, “the freed people will not
be so reluctant to go.”
Lincoln also promised the men “a
substantial pledge of pecuniary aid.”
While
acknowledging that support for emancipation required tremendous courage, Lincoln said the country’s
future depended upon it.
“Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the
world, its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its happy
future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand.”