Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-07-21
The PresidenT's Appeal TO the Border
Efnfea


The National Intelligencer gives the fol-
lowing as the paper read by President Lin
coin to the Representatives and Senators
from the Border Slave States, who met at
the Presidential Mansion by request:
"GENTLENEN 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 a dutv
which cannot justifably waive to make
this appeal to you.
intend no 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
And 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
lion see definitely and certainly that in no
event will the States you represent ever
Join their proposed Confederacy, and they
cannot much Ions Y maintain the contest
But you cannot dIFest them Of their hope
to ultimately have you with them 50 long
y
the institution within your own States
Beat them at elections, as you have over
Whelmingly done, and, nothing daunted.
they still claim 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 you must not
now think improperly touch what is ex-
clusively your own, when, for the sake of
the whole country, l ask, "Can you, for
! your States, do better than to take the
course I urge2p Disearding puGefiEo and
maxims adapted to more manageable times.
and looking only to the unprecedented
| stern facts of our case, can you do better
in any possible eVent2 You prefer that
/ the constitutional relations Of the States
to the nation shall be practically restored
/ without disturbance Of the institution /;
and, If this were done, 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 incidents Of the war
/ cannot be avoided. If the war continues
long, as it must if the object be not sooner
attained, the institution in your States will
be extinguished by mere friction and abra-
sion-by the mere incidents Of the war
Il will be gone, and you win 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 secures sub
stantial compensation for that which is
sure to be wholly lost in any other event
How much better to thus save the money
which else we sink forever in the war :
How much better TO do It while we can,
lest the war ere long render US pecuniariiy
unable 70 do i'll How much better for you,
as seller, and the nation, as buyer, to sell
out and buy out that without which the
war could never have been, than to sink
both the thing 70 be sold and the price Of
it, in cutting one another's throats. L
do not speak Of emancipation at once
but Of decision at once TO emaneipatC
gradually. Room in South Ameriea for
colonization can be obtained eheaply and
in abundance, and when numbers shall be
large enough to be company and encour.
agement for one another, the freed people
viii not be 50 reluctant 70 20. GrTr.
/ am pressed with q difficulty not yei
meRtioned-one which threatens division
among those who, united, are nons too
strong. Aninstsnce Of il is known to you
Gen. Hunter is al honest man. He was
and hope still is, my friend I valued
him none the less for his agreeing with me
In the general Wish that AL men eYerE.