1862 State of the Union Address

A written message, read by a clerk

On 1 December 1862 Abraham Lincoln transmitted his written Second Annual Message to the 37th Congress. Following the practice of the time he did not deliver it as a speech; the secretary of the Senate read it aloud.

At 8,385 words it was the longest of Lincoln's four written annual messages.

Three amendments, with a deadline in 1900

Lincoln proposed three constitutional amendments: federal compensation for states abolishing slavery before 1900, permanent freedom for people freed through the war with compensation for loyal owners, and congressional authority to fund consensual colonisation outside the United States.

The gradual window ran 37 years, ending 1 January 1900. States that abolished slavery voluntarily within it would receive federal bonds.

This was a distinct programme rather than a restatement of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation he had issued on 22 September.

The war would not wait for Congress

He said explicitly that neither the war nor implementation of the preliminary proclamation would be suspended while Congress considered the compensated plan.

Lincoln closed the emancipation argument by declaring that freeing enslaved people would also preserve freedom for the free, and that the nation would either nobly save or meanly lose "the last best hope of earth."

The message altered no one's legal status that day; the final Emancipation Proclamation followed on 1 January 1863.