The age-herald., 1901-04-07
SlncONN Dld PvopOse to Pay for Slaves.
 BY JAMES L. TANNER
BY JAMES L. TANNER,

of the United States bearing interest at the rate of " per cent. per annum to an amount equal to the aggregate sum of - for each slave shown to have been therein by the eighth census of the United States, said bonds to be delivered to such State by installments or in one parcel at the completion of the abolish ment. accordingly as the same shall have been gradual or at one time within such State and interest shall begin to run upon any such bond only from the proper time of It's delivery as aforesaid. Any State having received bonds as aforesaid and afterwards reintroducing or tolerat- ing slavery therein shall refund to the United States the bonds so received, or the value thereof, and all interest paid thereon.
 "Art.-All slaves who shall have enjoy ed actual freedom by thechances of the war at any time before the end of the rebellion shall be forever free; but all owners of such who shall not have been dis1oyal shall be compensated for them at the same rates as Is provided for States adopting abo1ishment of slavery, but in such way that no slave shall be twice accounted for.
 "Art.-Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for colonizing free colored persons with their own consent at any place or places without the United States"
 And this recommendation he discusses in his message article by article, showing the wisdom of the adoption of such an amendment and I quote from his mes sage, as followsi
 "The plan leaves to each State choos- ing to act under it to abolish slavery now or at the end of the century, or at any nj nadf fot ix1a ISxyd ing over the whole or any part of the period, and 1t obliges no two States to proceed alike. It also provides for com pensation, and generally the mode of making 1t. This, it would seem, must fur ther mitigate the dissatisfaction of those who favor perpetual slavery, and espe- cially of those who are to receive the compensation. Doubtless some of those who are to pay and not to receive will ob- ject. Yet the measure is both just and economical, In a certain sense the lib- eration of slaves is the destruction of property-property acquired by descent or by purchase, the same as any other property. It is no less true for having been often said that the people of the South are not more responsible for the original introduction of this property than are the people of the North; and when 1t is remembered how unhesftating- ly we all use cotton and sugar and share the profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite safe to say that the South has been more responsible than the North for its continuance. If, then, for a com mon object this property is to be sacri- feed, is 1t not just that 1t be done at a common charger"
 And on January IS, 1865, he wrote the Hon. F. F. Blair, as follows:
 Washington, January 18 1866 F. P. Blair, Esq.
 Sir: Your having shown me MT Davis letter to you of the 12th instant, you may say to him that have constantly been, am now, and shall continue ready to re- ceive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the na- tional authority may informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.
 Yours, etc.,
 A LINCOLN. And on January 30. 1865. Messrs. Stevens and Campbell and Hunter addressed the following communication to Lieutenant General U. s. Grant:
 Petersburg, Va, January 30, 1865. Lieutenant General U. sc. Grant, Com manding Armies United States
 Sir: We desire to pass your lines un-