Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1862-08-02
National Affairs.
The Presidents Appeal
TO THE
B Q r DER ST ATES

The Representatives and Senators of the
Border Slavohoding States having, by
special invitation of the President, been
convened at the Executive Mansion on
Saturday morning last, Mr.. Lincoln ad-
dreascd them as follows, from written
paper held in his hands.
GENTLEMAN After the adjournment
Of Congress, now near, | shall have no op-
portunity Of seeing you for several months
believing that you Of the Border States
hold more power for good than any other
equal number of members, feel it duty,
which | cannot justifably waive, to make
this appear to you.
intend DO reproach or complaint when
[ assure you that, in my opinion, if you all
had voted for the resolution in the gradual
emancipation message of last March, the
war would now be substantially ended
Aud the plan therein proposed is yet one
of the most potent and swift means of end :.
ing it. Let the States which are in rebel.
ion sec definitely and certainly that in on
event will the States you represent ever
Join their proposed Confederacy, and they
cannot much longer maintain the contest.
But you cannot divest them of their hone
to ultimately have you with them SO long
as you show determination to perpatuato
the institution within your own States
Beat them at elections, as you have over
whelmingly done, and, nothing daunted
they still cloim you as their own. You
and know what the lever of their power
is. Break that lever before their faces,
and they can shake you no more forever.
Most of you have treated me with kind
ness and consideration, and l trust you will
not now think | improperly touch what is
exclusively your own, when, for the sa..
of the whole country, ask, "can yoy,
for your States, do better than to take the
course | urge? Discarding p,uctiio and
maxims adapted to more manageable times,
and looking only to the unprecedentedly
stern facts of our case, can you do better
in any possible eventl You prefer that
the constitutional relation of the States to
the nation shall be practically restored
without disturbance of the institution and
if this were dore, my whole duty in this
respect, under the Constitution and my
oath of office, would be performed. But
it is not done, and we are trying to accom-.
plish it by war. The incident of the war
cannot be avoided. If the war continue S
long, as it must, if the object be not sooner
attained, the institution in your States
will be eXtinguished by mere friction and
abrasion by the mere incidents of the war.
1t will be gone, and you will have nothing
valuable in lieu of it, Much of its value
is gone already. How much better for
you and for your people to take the step
which at once shortens the war, and Sc
cures substantial compensation for that
which is sure to be wholly lost in any 9TH
er event How much better to thus save
the money which else We sink forever in
the war How much better to do il while
we can, lest the war ere long render us
pecuniary unable to do it How much
better for you, as seller, and the nation
as buyer, to sell cut and buy out that with
out which the war could never have been,
than to sink both the things to be sold and
the price of it in cutting one another'i
throats