A Bill

Abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no person not now within the District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now resident within it, nor hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery within said District.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That no person now within said District, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District: Provided, That officers of the government of the United States, being citizens of the slaveholding States, coming into said District on public business, and remaining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for that object, may be attended into and out of said District, and while there, by the necessary servants of themselves and their families without their right to hold such servants in service being thereby impaired.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all children of slave mothers within said District on or after the first day of __, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, shall be free, but shall be reasonably supported and educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or representatives, and shall serve reasonable service as apprentices to such owners, heirs, and representatives, until they respectively arrive at the age of twenty-one years, when they shall be entirely free; and the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all suitable and necessary provisions for enforcing obedience to this section on the part of both masters and apprentices.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons now within said District lawfully held as 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: Provide, That any such owner, or his legal representatives, 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 it to the applicant an order on the treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, 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. And be it further enacted, 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 about 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. And be it further enacted, That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall in nowise be prohibited by this act.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, 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 limits of Georgetown.

• S. 252 (introduced on 1862-03-28 12:00:00 - CREATE - e812342) [This document]

• S. 252 (introduced on 1862-03-28 12:00:00 - CREATE - e812342) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]
  • None (introduced on 1862-03-28 12:00:00 - POSTPONE_DEBATE - e812344) [view current proposal at this moment]