The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1862-03-22
COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION.
Special Message Of the President to
Congress.

Special Message of the President to
Congress. 49,
On the 9th inst. the President transmit
ted to Congress the following message:
FELLOW Citizens of tie Senate and House of
Representatives $3.50 81. =as.s-
recommend the adoption of joint res
olution by your honorable bodies which shall
be substantially as follows +: *
.'Resolued, That the United States oug ht
to cooperate with any State which may
adopt gradual adjustment of Slavery,
giving to such State pecuniary aid to be
used by such State in its discretion to COM
pensate for the inconvenience, public and
private, produced by such change of sys-
tenn"
If the proposition contained in the reso-
luton does not meet the approval of Con-
gress and the country, there is the end
but If it does command such approval, /
deem it of importance that the States and
people Immediately interested should be at
once distinctly notified of the fact, so that
they may begin to consider whether to
accept or reject it. The Federal Govern
meut would ind its highest interest in such
measure of self-preservation. The lead
ers of existing instruction 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 points
will then say the Union for which we have
struggled being already gone, we now choose
to 90 with them. To deprive them Of this
hope, substantially ends the rebellion, and
the initiation of emancipation completely
deprives them of it as to all the States in
itiating. 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 initiation, make it certain to
the more Southern that in no event shall the
former Join the latter in their proposed
Confederacy.
I say s.initiation," because in my judg-
ment gradual. and not sudden, emancipation
is better for all. In the mere financial or
pecuniary view, any member of Congress,
with the census tables and the Treasury re-
ports before him, can readily see for him
self how very soon the current expenditures
of the war would purchase, at fair valua-
ton, all the slaves ip any named State.
Such a proposition on the part of the Gen.
eral Government sets up no claim or right
by Federal authority to interfere with slav-
the absolute control of the subject in each
case to the State and its people i'm mediate
lily interested. 1t is proposed as matter of
perfectly free choice with them. In the
annual message last Decembr, I thought
fit to say the Union must be preserved, and
hence all indispensable means must be en-
ployed. said this not hastily, but delib-
erately. War has been, and continues to
be, an indispensable means to this end. a
practical acknowledgment of the nation
al authority would render the war unneces-
sary, and it would at once cease. If, how
ever, resistance continues, the war must
also continue, and it is impossible to fore
see all the incidents which may attend, and
all the ruin which may follow. Such as
may seem indispensable, or may obviously
promise greater efficiency towards ending
1.-The struggle, must and will come. 81.
The proposition now made is an offer on
by. / hope il may be esteemed no ofense
20 ask whether the pscuniary consideration
rendered would not be of more value to the
States and private persons concerned than
are the Institution and property in it, in the
present aspect of affairs While it is true
that the adoption of the proposed resolution
would be merely initiatory, and not within
itself practical measure, it is recommend
ed IN the hope that it would sooner lead to
important results. s95E{ 5sa bnno f
In full view of my great responsibility
to my God and to my country, earnestly
beg the attention of Congress and the peo-
/ pie to the subject - azui1. aaia7a
T lSigned) 50 -ABRAHAM LINCOLN
itGaT ssErs s