Year: 1862

soon the current expenditures Of the war would
purchase at q fair valuation all the slaves in
any named State" This eminently practical
and constitutional craftsmanship takes the wind
out of the sails Of the revolutionary abolition
lists, and deals death blow 10 their visionary
hopes.


But there is an important question upon
which MIR. Lincoln does not touch in his Mes
sage, but which s intimately and inseparably
connected with the whole subject, and that is
what is to be done with the emancipated
negroes? The President did not enter upon
the discussion OF this point, both because it
would complicate the simple proposition in
his Message, and because neither he nor
Congress has any jurisdiction over the
matter Yet the Southern States, in
considering the proposition Of Mr.. Lin
coin, must take into account all the conse-
quences which would result from II to them
selves The question, "what is to be done with
the negro after his emancipation ~ is, there
fore, an essential element in the Southern calcu-
lation. That the negro should be as free as white
men, either at the North or at the South, is out
of the question. The most that can be contem-
plated for him is personal liberty, and not poli-
tical. He cannot be allowed to vote, and he
cannot be allowed to be idle. He will be free
from master, but not free from the restraint
of law-not free to become burthen and o
nuisance to society. He must henceforth obey
the State instead of o master. He will have the
power of locomotion to 60 where he thinks
60 10 s,,l,o
pleases, and he cannot be separated from his
family without bis own consent; but he must
be compelled to work or suffer the penalties of
vagrancy. 1t is clearly demonstrated by expe-
rience that negroes will not work but under
compulsion, and therefore it is absolutely neces-
sary, under some form or other


has been suggested that the proper course
to pursue with the emancipated negro is to
COLOMBO him. If tho climate OF the cotton
States were like that of the North, or even
like that of Virginia, North Carolina, Ken
lucky, Missouri and Tennessee, colonization
would be a good solution Of the difficult
ty, provided it did not cost so much.
suit the white laborer, and if the development
of the resources of those States depended On
him they would remain undeveloped for CEN
turies. The negro is essentially necessary to
the wealth and prosperity Of tho cotton States,
and consequently to the interests Of the whole
Union, and to send him out Of the country
would not only be to restore him to idolatry and
barbarism. but to throw away boundless riches
without any compensation. Labor is the wealth
of nations, and the black laboring population
Of the Gulf States could never bs replaced
there. But if the Presidents proposition should
be adopted negro slavery would be confined
to those States, and under such limitations it
white man. On the contrary it would aid the
general progress of the nation The border
slave States, suited as they are to the labor of
the white man, will undoubtedly sooner or
later adopt the proposition of the President,
and sell their negroes to the cotton States. But
in those States the institution will long remain.
because there it will be profitable alike to the
black and white population, profitable to the
rest of the Union, and profitable to the world
at large. Mexico and Jamaica, situated in the
same kind of climate have been ruined by the
abolition of negro slavery, while Cuba and
Brazil, by retaining it, have prospered beyond
any other communities in the New World, save
the United States alone.


THE PROPOSED MILITARY CULTIVATION OF
SOUTHERN CorToN LANDs.-Our abolition con-
temporary, the Tribune, announces that Sena-
tor Wade is entitled to the credit of pressing to
passage, at the earliest practicable moment, Sem
ator Fosters bill for the occupation and culti-
vation of the cotton and other lands on the
Southern coast which the rebellion has decided
to the United States "Deeded to the United
States" How! Have the owners, who va
Gated the sea islands around Port Royal on
the approach of our victorious troops, been
tried and convicted Of treason? Or, granted
that those absented South Carolina planters are
all traitors, and that their plantations are thus
forfeited temporarily to the government, and
that the government, for the time being, has
the right to cultivate those lands, as the owner
thereof, the question recurs, will the expert
ment pay, under the existing condition of
things?


We think not The main object of the bill is
professedly to give employment to several
thousands of contraband negroes, left behind
on those South Carolina and Georgia sea islands
by their masters, or negroes who refused to fol-
low their masters in their fight. Those negroes.
with nothing to do, are dead incumbrance
upon the Treasury. This cultivation scheme,
therefore, appears very plausible at first sight;
but when we come to look into its comprehen-
sive provisions for board Of overseers, con-
tip nort nxnansas &c II annears to us a very nice