Annotation
[1] Congressional Globe, Thirtieth Congress, Second Session, p. 212. Also ADf, DLC-RTL. The remarks are taken from the Congressional Globe, but the proposed bill has been corrected additionally from the autograph draft in the Lincoln Papers.
[2] John Wentworth of Illinois, who had moved to table a motion to reconsider the resolution, adopted on December 21, 1848, on motion of Daniel Gott of New York, instructing the committee for the District of Columbia to report a bill prohibiting slavery in the District.
[3] In the autograph draft the bill carries the following title: ``A bill for an act to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, by the consent of the free white people of said District, and with compensation to owners.''
[4] Three days later, on January 13, Lincoln gave notice of his intention to introduce the bill himself, his earlier effort having come to nothing. He never followed the announcement, however, and the document in the Lincoln Papers is doubtless the actual copy made for that purpose. Years later, in 1861, Lincoln explained that upon ``finding that I was abandoned by my former backers and having little personal influence, I dropped the matter knowing that it was useless to prosecute the business at that time.'' (James Quay Howard's Notes on Lincoln, DLC-RTL).