Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-23

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should chance 10 be elected, Greeley win
favor the payment Of pensions to rebel SOL
diers' widows and orphans. Nav, more
be viii favor the payment OF the rebel war
debit and finally, paymentto the rebels for
their Slaves. This viii bankrupt the Gov
ernment Of the United States and ruin the
] people with taxes"
1t Is BY such bug-a-boo utterances as this
that "a grave and reverend Senator hopes
to intimidate the people of East Tennessee
from voting for Mr.. Greeley. If Mr..
Greeley should do any such thing after his
inauguration as President, as recommend
payment to the Rebels for their slaves,n
he would do little more han Mr.. Lincoln
to whose coat-tsil the Governor pinned bis
faith-did while President. If there is
any one thing clearer than another in
President Lincoln's official utterances it is
his recognition of the rights of property in
slaves within the boundaries where slavery
was sanctioned by law. When Congress
passed an act in April, 1862, to abolish
slavery in The district of Columbia, Mr..
Lincoln sent a message to both Houses ex-
pressly approving the principle of COM
pensation, and recommending further leg
islation to secure 1t in all cases:
81 am grstifed that the two principles of
compensation and colonization are TO be re-
cognized and practically applied in the act.
| In the matter Of compensation, it is pro-
| vided that claims may be presented within
ninety days from the passage of the act,
| but not thereafter and there is no saving
| for minors, feRanes couertes, insane or alb
sent persons. l persume this is an omis-
sion by mere oversight, and l recommend
that it he supplied by an amendatory or
supplemental act"
This was on the 10Th day of April, 1862,
but on the 9th of March previous, Mr.. Lin
coin hao addressed message TO Congress
recommending the adoption of joint reso-
luton ''that the United States, in order to
cooperate with any State which may adopt
gradual abolition of slavery, give to such
State pecunioTy aid, to be used by such
State, il its discretion, to compensate it for
the inconvenience, public and private, pro-
duced by such a change of system" And
he said: ates
81 hope If may be esteemed no offense to
ask whether the pecaRiGry consideration
rendered would not be of more value to the
States and private persons concerned than
would the Institution and property in it, in
the present aspect Of affairs"
Four days afterwards Mr. Roscoe Conk-
ling-then Representative in Congress
from New York, and now one Of the Sena-
tors from that State, and one of Grants
strongest henchmen-ofered in the House
of Representatives precisely such a resolu-
tion Of pecuniary compensation for the vol
untary abolition of slavery as Mr.. Lincoln
recommended. 1t passed the House imme-
diately by vote of 50 to31, and passed
the Senate by vote of 80 to 10, but moth
ing practical resulted therefrom, as the ma
jOrity of the Radical Representatives from
the border holding States were OPP
posed to it. Il was estimated by these
Representatives in a letter addressed to the
President July IA, 1862, (said to have been
prepared by Mr.. J. w. Crisfeld, of Mary
land,) that the measure if carried out in the
six border States of Kentucky, Maryland,
Virginia, Delaware, Missouri and Tennes- |
see, would cost $47S, 07S, 1873.
The principle of compensation for slave |
property runs through all Mr.. Lincoln's |
state papers. Emancipation with compen-
cation 1roe e,;s Fa,ors4a y,,ooe,ra T., - :,
terview with Representatives and Senators
of the border slave-holding States in July,
1862, President Lincoln addressed them as
follows from written paper held in his
hands:
81 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.
"Most of you have treated me with kind
ness and consideration, and l trust you will
not now think 1 improperly touch what is
exclusively your own, when, for the sake of
the whole country, l ask, Can you, foryour
States, do better than to take
the course I urge? Discarding ponctiLiO
and maxims adapted TO more man
sgable times, and looking only to the IN
stern facts of our case, can
you do better in any possible event? You
prefer that the constitutional relation of the
States to the nation shall be practically re-
stored without disturbance of the institu-
ton: and if this were done, my whole duty,
in this respect, under the constitution and
my oath of office, would be performed.
. e. r. l.
your people to take the step which at once
shOrtens the war, and secures substantial
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 pecuniaily unable to do it!
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 to be sold |
and the price of it in eating one another's
Lhroatsln ~s. .-.
Mr.. Horace Maynard was then in Con-
gress, and was of course, one of the Repre-
to whom Mr.. Lincoln made bis
appeal. In letter bearing date July 10,
1862, be informed the President that he had
mot been able 10 concur in view with the
and wound up as follows:
81 did not vote for the resolution to
which you allude, solely for the reason that
It the time was absent at the capital of :
my own State. IT is RIGHT.
'FShould any of the slave States think 6
proper to terminate that institution, as sew
raj of them, understand, or at least some 8
If their citizens propose, justice and gen.
,rous country require that the country
hould interpose to aid it in lessening the
burden, public and private, occasioned by
o radical a change in its social and indus ?
rial relations.
81 will not now speculate upon the effect, |
t home or abroad, of the adoption of your !
,olicy, nor inquire what action Of the rebel a
eaders has rendered something of the kind n
Your whole administration !,
ives the highest assurance that you are T,
moved, not so much from a desire to see all il
zen eUeTylUhere free, as from a far higher a
eSire to preserve free institutions for the h
eneft of men already free; not to make f.
avps of franunar but tn Y1ravant frppmAn | "A