Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Notes regarding a Speech to the Colonization Society, [ca. 4 January 1855]1

1434– A portaguse captain, on the coast of Guinea, seizes a few Affrican lads, and sells them in the South of Spain–

1501-2-3. Slaves are carried from Africa to the Spanish colonies in America–

1516-17 Charles 5^th of Spain gives encouragement to the African Slave trade–

1562– John Hawkins carries slaves to the British West Indies–2

1620 A duth[Dutch] ship carries a cargo of African slaves to Virginia–

1626– Slaves introduced into New-York–

1630 to 41. Slaves introduced into Massachusetts–

1776– The period of our revolution, there were about 600000 slaves in the colonies; and there are now in the U.S. about ^3¹/4^ millions–

Soto, the catholic confessor of Charles 5. opposed Slavery and the Slave trade from the begining and, in 1543, procured from the King some amelioration of its rigors–

The American colonies, from the beginning, appealed to the British crown, against the Slave trade; but without success–

1727– Quakers begin to agitate for the abolition of Slavery within their own denomination

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1751– Quakers succeed in abolishing Slavery within their own denomination–

1787– Congress, under the confederation, passes an ordinance forbidding Slavery to go to the North Western Teritory–

1808– Congress, under the constitution, abolishes the Slave trade, and declares it piracy–

1776. to 1800– Slavery abolished in all the States North of Maryland and Virginia–

All the while– Individual conscience at work.

1816– Colonization Society is organized— it’s direct object— history— and present prospects of success–

Its colateral objects— Suppression of Slave trade— commerce— civilization and religion–

Objects of this meeting–3

1Abraham Lincoln wrote this document.
Curators at the Library of Congress assigned 1849 as the date for these notes, but there is no evidence to support this contention. Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, inferred the date of January 4, 1855. He derived this date from the fact that Lincoln addressed the Illinois State Colonization Society on that date. He had been announced as speaker for the society’s annual meeting the year before, on January 12, 1854, but was prevented from attending on account of illness in his family.

Lincoln had also spoken on colonization on August 30, 1853. Neither a handwritten or published version of this speech has been located. Although this outline might conceivably have been prepared for either the 1853 or 1854 occasions, the editors agree with Basler that it seems in appearance to belong to the period of the resolutions that Lincoln penned recommending amendment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act .
Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 30 August 1853, 3:1; 14 January 1854, 2:1; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 30 August 1853, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1853-08-30; 12 January 1854, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1854-01-12; Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 2:299;

2English merchant John Hawkins enslaved people on the coast of Africa in 1562 and transported them not to the British West Indies, but to Spanish ports on the island of Hispaniola, arriving in 1563.
Basil Morgan, “Hawkins, Sir John,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 25:920.

3The fact that this outline appears in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress between draft one and draft two of the aforementioned resolutions, suggests that the purpose of the meeting may have been to adopt the resolutions and recommend their adoption by the Illinois General Assembly. The Nineteenth Illinois General Assembly, which commenced on January 1, 1855, received several resolutions concerning the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, but Lincoln's resolutions were not introduced.
Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 2:299, 301; Illinois House Journal. 1855. 19th G. A., 3, 157-58, 197, 265, 391-92; Illinois Senate Journal. 1855. 19th G. A., 3, 32, 47-48