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This second printed draft for the July 4 congressional message contrasts free labor's promise of advancement with systems that permanently fix people's status. Its exact draft date is not settled across Library of Congress surfaces: the catalog title says May–June 1861 and its Created/Published field says May 1861, while the embedded LOC PDF transcription says June or July 1861. Lincoln's opportunity argument is collated to that draft; July 4, 1861 remains a separate congressional event date.
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