The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1862-03-19
The Presidents Special Message.

The ostensibly essential proposition of
the Presidents special message TO Con-
gress, communicated on Thursday and
published by us yesterday, is, that Con-
gress should notify the slave States that
the Federal government will aid such Of
them as may adopt systems Of gradual
emancipation-such aid to be in appropri-
ations of money, to be used by such
States, in their discretion, TO compen-
safe for the inconvenience, public and
private, produced BY such change of sys
tenn"
But this is not the really essential propo-
stion of the message. The really essential
proposition is, that the general government
should "set up no claim or right, by Fed
eral authority, to interfere with slavery
within State limits" but that ",he abso-
lutte control of the subject, in each case"
belongs "to the State and people imme-
diately interested"
1t occurs to us that the prime purpose
of the message was to make, in an i'm
pressive form, the latter proposition, with
the view of confronting the abolition and
coufscation schemes in Congress, and that
the former proposition was only the yehi-
Gle of the latter.
The former, however, would not, were
it made independently, be more palatable
to abolitionism than the latter. Aboli-
tionism has not now, nor has ever had,
any idea of compensatory emancipation.
1t has had, and has more than ever now,
greater care for the spoiation of the slave
holder than for the emancipation of the
slave. II will, therefore, with scorn and
wrath, reject the Presidents specific rec
ommendation, and accept his issue that
the absolute control of slavery belongs to
the State and people Immediately inter-
ested.
We need not ourselves concur with the
Presidents specific recommendation in Or
der TO applaud the spirit of the message.
We doubt the practicability if not the
constitutionality, of the recommendation,
but the spirit of tho message is admira-
bic. 1t casts to the wind, so far as the
President is concerned, the whole aboli-
tiou scheme of confscation and emancipa-
tiou of the slaves by Federal authority.
1t re-asserts the democratic doctrine with
regard TO the relations of the Federal
government to slavery in the States. 1t
discloses that the Presidents anti-slavery
notions are Of the mildest and most harm
less type.
We are glad of this open issue between
the President and aboltionism. We have
been praying for some time past that it
might speedily come. The government
and the cause of the Union will be i'm
mensely strengthened by it. The mes
sage is really in the nature Of procla-
nation to the people Of the South shat
no project of emancipation will be forced
upon them-that if any of tho States
choose TO inaugurate plans Of gradual
emancipation, the President would advise
that the general government should aid
them in making compensation to slave
owners, but if none of them shall choose
to inaugurate such plans, then the busi-
ness ends. We do not know what the
South could wish more re-assuring than
this.
That the President should, with spe-
cial emphasis, contemn "sudden emanci-
patton" and that he does not foresee that
all the States will, under any circumstan-
ces, initiate gradual emancipation, will
gall abolitionism to the quick. That all
the hopes to accomplish by inducing the
border slave States to initiate emancipa-
ton is TO make it their interest to remain
with the North in any event. and thus
weaken secession, will gall abolitionists
still more severely. Chicago Times.