In the Senate of the United States. February 13, 1862. -- Ordered to be printed. Mr. Morrill made the following Report. [To accompany bill No 108] [Senate Report, 37th Congress, 2d Session, Rep. Com. No. 12]
- Washington, DC , 1862
Washington, DC, 1862. Very Good. Washington, DC? s.i., 1862. First Edition. Octavo; 2pp. broadsheet (22.5x14cm) removed from larger volume. Margins toned, else Very Good.
Speech delivered by the firebrand abolitionist and Senator from Maine Lot Myrick Morrill (1813-1883) regarding a bill providing for "the emancipation of the slaves in this District, with just compensation to loyal masters" - Morrill estimates about 3200 enslaved persons currently resided in the District. The bill itself was introduced by Massachusetts senator Henry Wilson, who had vowed in his youth to "give all I have to emancipation" after witnessing a slave auction in the District.
Lot Morrill, known as an unflinching enemy of slavery, was chosen to deliver this speech, having become something of a celebrity a year earlier at the Washington Peace Conference where he, the diminutive and soft-spoken Governor of Maine, had stood up to the threat of physical violence by a pro-secession delegate. In this speech, delivered nearly a year before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Morrill expounded that "Slavery is tolerated at the capital of no other civilized nation...Its repugnance to the sentiments of most of those who officially assemble here is, of itself, deemed adequate ground for its discontinuance."
With the southern seats of Congress largely abandoned, those who remained were free for the first time to consider proposing emancipation, first on a small scale such as this, before gaining the momentum that eventually culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. This Bill was passed on April 3rd, and signed by Lincoln on April 16th.
An OCLC count on any individual Senate publication is bound to be inaccurately low, but it is worth noting that only Georgetown holds a separately catalogued copy of this important speech as of April, 2025.
Speech delivered by the firebrand abolitionist and Senator from Maine Lot Myrick Morrill (1813-1883) regarding a bill providing for "the emancipation of the slaves in this District, with just compensation to loyal masters" - Morrill estimates about 3200 enslaved persons currently resided in the District. The bill itself was introduced by Massachusetts senator Henry Wilson, who had vowed in his youth to "give all I have to emancipation" after witnessing a slave auction in the District.
Lot Morrill, known as an unflinching enemy of slavery, was chosen to deliver this speech, having become something of a celebrity a year earlier at the Washington Peace Conference where he, the diminutive and soft-spoken Governor of Maine, had stood up to the threat of physical violence by a pro-secession delegate. In this speech, delivered nearly a year before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Morrill expounded that "Slavery is tolerated at the capital of no other civilized nation...Its repugnance to the sentiments of most of those who officially assemble here is, of itself, deemed adequate ground for its discontinuance."
With the southern seats of Congress largely abandoned, those who remained were free for the first time to consider proposing emancipation, first on a small scale such as this, before gaining the momentum that eventually culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. This Bill was passed on April 3rd, and signed by Lincoln on April 16th.
An OCLC count on any individual Senate publication is bound to be inaccurately low, but it is worth noting that only Georgetown holds a separately catalogued copy of this important speech as of April, 2025.