Video: 'The President's Message to Congress, December 1, 1862'

(Monday, December 1, 1862; during the American Civil War and Slavery in the United States) — U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for the abolition of slavery today in his Second Annual Message to Congress (read aloud by the Secretary of the Senate), writing: “Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”

Video: 'Ken.Burns.The.Civil.War.3of9.Forever.Free.' (Dec. 1, 1862, at 1:06:58)

Toward the end of his message, Lincoln wrote: “In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free–honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”