Doc. 151.-the Abolition of slavery.
Compensation to the States.
Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the President of the United States shall be satisfied that any State shall have lawfully abolished slavery within and throughout such State, either immediately or gradually, it shall be the duty of the President, assisted by the Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare and deliver to each State an amount of six per cent interest-bearing bonds of the United States equal to the aggregate value at — dollars per head of all the slaves within such State as reported by the census of 1860, the whole amount for any one State to be delivered at once if the abolishment be immediate, or in equal annual instalments if it be gradual, interest to begin running on each bond at the time of delivery, and not before. And be it further enacted, That if any State having so received any such bonds shall at any time afterward, by law, reintroduce or tolerate slavery within its limits, contrary to the act of abolishment upon which such bonds shall have been received, said bonds so received by said State shall at once be null and void in whosesoever hands they may be, and such State shall refund to the States all interest which may have been paid on such bonds.
