Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1862-03-14

AHe lViiuWihS mesadgo was SeHt 70
Congress, by Mr.. LINCOLN, on the 7th
instant:
Ftllow-citizens Of tie Senate
and House Of Representatives..
recommend the adoption of a joint
resolution by your honorable bodies which
shall be substantially as follows:
Resolved, That the United States ought
to cooperate with any State which may
adopt tha gradual abolishmcnt of slavery,
giving to each 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
resolution does not meet the approval Of
Congress and the country, there is the
end but If it does command such appro-
val, ] deem it Of Importance tl.at- the
States and people Immediately interested
should be at once distinctly notified Of
the fact, so that they may begin to con-
slider whether to accept or reject it. The
Federal Government would find its high
est interest in such measure of one of
the most efficient means of self-preserya-
ton The leaders of the existing insur-
rection entertain the hope that this Gov
eminent will ultimately be forced to ac-
knowledge the independence Of some part
of the disahected region and that all the
slave States north Of such part will then
say the Union, for which we have strug-
gled, being already gone, we now choose
to 60 with the Southern section. To de-
priye them of this hope substantially
ends the rebellion, and the initiation Of
emancipation completely depriycs them
of it, as to all the States initiating it.
The point is, not that all the States toll
Grating 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 initiation, make
it certain to the more southern that in
no event will the former ever join the
latter in their proposed Confederacy.
! say initiation, because, in my judg-
ment, gradual and not sudden emancipa-
ton is better for all In the mere finan-
cial or pecuniary view, any member Of
| Congress, with the census tables and
Treasury report before him, can readily
see for himself how very soon the current
expenditures of this war would purchase,
at fair valuation, all the slaves in any
named State. Such proposition, on the
part Of the General Government, sets up
no claim Of right by Federal authority
to interfere with slavery in State limits,
referring as it does the absolute control
of the subject, in each case, TO the State
and its people Immediately interested. IL
is proposed as q matter Of perfectly free
choice with them.
lii the annual message last December
| thought fit to say: 1.-THE Union must
be preserved, and hence all indispensa-
BILE means must DO employed" | said
this, not hastily, but deliberately. War
had been made, and continues 10 be an
indispensable means to this end. A prac-
teal acknowledgment Of the national
authority would render the war unneces-
sary, and il would at once cease. If,
however, resistance continues, the war
must also continue; and it is impossible
to forsee all the incidents which may at
tend and all the ruin which may follow
it. Such as may seem indispensable, or
may obviously promise great efficiency
towards ending the struggle, must and
will como.
The proposition now made, though an
offer only, / hope il may DO esteemed no
offence to ask whether the peouuiary con-
sideration rendered would not be Of more
value 10 the States and private persons
concerned, than are the institution and
property 10 IL, in the present aspect Of
Affairs.
While il is true that the adoption of