The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1862-03-12
WASHINGTON, March 6,


The President to-day transmitted to
Congress the following message:
FtAoac- citizens or the Senate aud House
Of Representatives.
l recommend the adoption Of joint
resolution by your honorable bodies, which
shall be substantially as follows
Reyoired, That the United States ought to
CO. operate with any State which may adopt
gradual abolishment Of slavery, giving to
such State pecuniary aid to be used by such
State in its discretion to compensate for the
inconvenience public and private produced
by such change of system.
If the proposition contained in the res
olutlon does not meet the approval of
Congress and the country, there is the
end but if it does command such approx
al | deem of importance that the States
and people Immediately interested should
at once be distinctly notified of the fact,
so that they may begin 10 consider 'wheth-
er to accept or reject it.
The Federal Government would 6nd
it's highest interest in such measure as,
one Of the most efficient means of self
preservation. The leaders of the existing
insurrection entertain the hope that the
Government will ultimately be forced to
acknowledge the independence of some
part of the disaffected region, and that
all the Slave States north of such parts
will then say, The Union for which we
have Struggled being already gone. We
now choose to 60 with the Southern sec
tion"
TO deprive them of this hope, substan-
TALLY ends the rebellion. and the initia-
tion of emauciation completely deprives
them Of it. AS to all the States initiat-
ing it, the point is not that all the States
tolerating Slavery, would very soon, if at
all, initiate emancipation, but that, while
the offer is equally made to all, the more
Northern shall by such imitation, make
it certain to the more Southern, that iu
no event will the former ever join the lat
ter 10 their proposed Confederacy.
| say ''lnitiation" because, ia NV iudg.
ment, gradual, and not sudden, emanci-
patton is better for all. In the mere
financial or pecuniary view, any Member
Of Congress, with the census tables and
the Treasury reports before him, can
readily see for himself how very soon the
current expenditures of this war would
purchase, at a fair valuation, all the slaves
in any named State. Such a proposition
on the part of the General Government
sets up no claim of right, by Federal
authority, to interfere with Slavery with
in State limits, referring, as it. does, the
absolute control of the subject in each
case to the State and its people immedi-
ately interested.
1t is proposed as matter of perfectly
free choice with them. In the Annual
Message, last December, l thought fit to
say The Union must be preserved, aud
hence all INDISPENSABLE means must be
employed y | said this not hastily, but
deliberately. War has b9en and contin.
ues to be, an indispensable means to this
end. A practical re acknowledgmen of
the national authority would render the
war unnecessary, and it would at once
cease.
If, however, resistance continues, the
war must also continue. and it is i.npos-
sible to foresee al the incidents which
may attend. and all the ruin which NAV
follow it. Such as may seem indispens-
able, or may obviously promise great eff
cheney toward ending the struggle, must
and will come.
The proposition now made, though an
offer only, [ hope it may be esteemed no
offence to ask whether the pecuniary cob.
slderation rendered would not be of more
value to the Stairs and private persons
concerned. than are the institution and
property in it, in the present aspect of
affairs.
While 1t is true that. the adoption of
the proposed resolution would be merely
initiatory, and not within itself practi.
cal measure, it is recommended in the
hope that it would soon lead to important
results. In full view of my great rcspon-
sibillty to my God and to my Country,
earnestly beg the attention of Congress
and the people to the subject
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.