A Man Reading The Presidential Proclamation by Henry Louis Stephens

Yesterday was an important day in the history of America. Vanessa Dixon had to remind me of it as the date had faded from my senile cerebral machinery. It seems that an edict went out through the land ordering the emancipation through payment of all slaves residing in Washington, D.C.

Today marks Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. The holiday commemorates President Lincoln's signing of the law in 1862 that paid for the liberation of more than 3,000 slaves and ended human bondage in the capital. The event this year has added resonance.   huffpol

I had to run to Wiki which is supposed to refresh my recollection. I found the name of the act and discovered this:

On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this law came 8 1/2 months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called "the national shame" of slavery in the nation's capital. It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 months, the Board of Commissioners appointed to administer the act approved 930 petitions, completely or in part, from former owners for the freedom of 2,989 former slaves.

Although its combination of emancipation, compensation to owners, and colonization did not serve as a model for the future, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act was an early signal of slavery's death. In the District itself, African Americans greeted emancipation with great jubilation. For many years afterward, they celebrated Emancipation Day on April 16 with parades and festivals. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/dc_emancipation_act/

So this was all accomplished under the auspices of the Fifth Amendment and it came even before the first Emancipation Proclamation:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

So 'just compensation' came into play here. Now I like to put things into some sort of context.

The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia (Russian: Крестьянская реформа 1861 года, lit. "The Peasant Reform of 1861") was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia. The reform, together with a related reform in 1861, amounted to the liquidation of serf dependence previously suffered by Russian peasants.  .wikipedia.

The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto proclaimed the emancipation of the serfs on private estates and of the domestic (household) serfs. By this edict more than twenty-three million people received their liberty.

To 'balance' this, the legislation contained three measures to reduce the potential economic self-sufficiency of the peasants. Firstly a transition period of nine years was introduced, during which the peasant was obligated as before to the old land-owner. Additionally large parts of common land were passed to the major land-owners as otrezki, making many forests, roads and rivers only accessible for a fee. The third measure was that the serfs must pay the land-owner for their allocation of land in a series of redemption payments. The total sum would be advanced by the government to the land-owner and then the peasants would repay the money, plus interest, to the government over a number of years.  http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/emancipation-reform-of-1861-in-russia/emancipation-manifesto.html

It is most interesting to me that Alexis de Tocqueville had compared two nations that were kind of appendages to Europe but controlled vast lands not really seen since the time of Rome:

There are now two great nations in the world which, starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans. Both have grown in obscurity, and while the world's attention was occupied elsewhere, they have suddenly taken their place among the leading nations, making the world take note of their birth and of their greatness almost at the same instant. All other peoples seem to have nearly reached their natural limits and to need nothing but to preserve them; but these two are growing.... The American fights against natural obstacles; the Russian is at grips with men. The former combats the wilderness and barbarism; the latter, civilization with all its arms. America's conquests are made with the plowshare, Russia's with the sword. To attain their aims, the former relies on personal interest and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of individuals. The latter in a sense concentrates the whole power of society in one man. One has freedom as the principal means of action; the other has servitude. Their point of departure is different and their paths diverse; nevertheless, each seems called by some secret desire of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world. http://www.bartleby.com/73/2045.html

He wrote this between 1835 and 1840!!!!

And twenty years or so later:

For the Czar of Russia, the Union was an essential element in maintaining the world balance of power. The Emperor made his views known through his foreign minister, Prince Gortchakoff:

This Union is not simply in our eyes an element essential to the universal political equilibrium. It constitutes, besides, a nation to which our august master and all Russia have pledged the most friendly interest; for the two countries, placed at the extremities of the two worlds, both in the ascending period of their development, appear called to a natural community of interests and of sympathies, of which they have already given mutual proofs to each other.

http://www.reformation.org/czar-alexander.html

Oh and look at this gem:

It is hard to imagine a greater contrast than existed between the United States and Russia in the middle of the 19th century. The vast Russian empire was celebrating its millennium and the new American Republic was not yet one hundred years old. In addition, the two systems of government were diametrically opposed. Russia was ruled by a hereditary monarchy and America by an elected president. Tsar Alexander II was well groomed and carried the persona of royalty that was in complete contrast to the lanky, homespun figure of Lincoln.

There are six letters in the National Archives from Alexander II to President Lincoln, each written in two languages, French and Russian, and signed "Your good friend, Alexander." Also preserved in the National Archives are hand copies of Lincoln's replies, signed "Your good friend, A. Lincoln."

http://www.russianamericaninstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=32

So Russia, the last of the European nations to abolish this form of slavery, weighs in before America. And compensation was involved. http://www.oshkoshmuseum.org/exhibits/President_and_the_Tsar.htm

age

Lincoln had to do something; he had Thaddeus Stevens and the Radical Republicans all over him. By taking some cues from Russia as well as the Fifth Amendment, he was able to straddle a fine line. Remember, there were all these Border States where slavery was allowed and yet these states did not vote for secession. We were getting soldiers from these states and a modicum of support; a modicum that came in handy because these states served as a buffer between us and the traitors. And I think this Fifth Amendment model for emancipation might have been a way of allaying the fears of slave owners in the buffer states.

This is April of 1862.  In January of that same year Thaddeus Stevens, was already working on what would be called the First Emancipation Proclamation which was signed into law in July of 1862.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort thereto, or shall engage in, or give aid and comfort to, any such existing rebellion or insurrection, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have; or by both of said punishments, at the discretion of the court.

...
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such person found or being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, 1862

". . . on the first day of January . . . all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." President Abraham Lincoln, preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862

President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War, announcing on September 22, 1862, that if the rebels did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states would be free. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/preliminary_emancipation_proclamation.html

So  April 19th approaches which becomes a day of celebration of the Battles of Lexington & Concord; the first battles of the War for Independence. But April 19th becomes a day of infamy recalling the McVeigh act of terrorism in Oklahoma City; while April 16th represents the first substantial step taken toward emancipation of the slaves in our country.

(Oh and I would like to take this opportunity to wish Barbara Walters a Happy 101st Birthday...live long and pwospew!!!)