Herewith is the draft of the bill to compensate any State which may abolish slavery within its limits, the passage of which, substantially as presented, I respectfully and earnestly recommend.
Editor's note · Context
Message to Congress Proposing an Act of Compensated Emancipation
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Now, in order to determine all controversies in respect thereto and to avoid any delay in filling up the armies, it is ordered that the Attorney-General, Brigadier-General Richard Delafield, and Colonel C. W. Foster be, and they are hereby, constituted a board to examine into the proper quotas and credits of the respective States and districts under the call of December 19, 1864
In his own view, however, the two Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth article of the Constitution, have complete power to exclude from counting all electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal, and it is not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a veto, as would be the case if his action were at all essential in the matter.
of your military necessities you must judge and execute, but please do so in the spirit and with the purpose above indicated.





