Year: 1862

WASHINGTON, March 6, 1862.
The following message:-


FELLOW CrrIzESs OF THE SENATE AND House OF


REPRESENTATIVES,


recommend the adoption of joint resolution
by your honorable bodies which shall be substan-
Gal'y as follows


Resolved, That the United States ought to CO.
operate with any State which may adopt gradual
abolishment of slavery, giving to such State Pc
caniary aid to be used by such State in its dscre
tion TO compensate for the Inconvenience, public
and private, produced by such change Of system.


II the proposition contained in the resolution
does not meet tie approval of Congress and the
country, there is the end; but if it does command
such approval, deem it Of Importance that the
Etates and people immediately interested should
be at once distinctly notified of the fact, 80 that
tbey may begin to consider whether to accept or
reject it. The federal government would find its
highest interest in such measure, as one Of the
most efficient means Of self-preservation.


The leaders of the existing insurrcction enter.
tain the hope that the government will, ultimate
iy, be forced to- acknowledge the independence of
some part of the disaffected region, and that all
che slave States north of such parts will then say
The Union, for which we have struggled, being
already gone, we now choose to go with the south
ern section" To deprive them Of this hope sub
stantialy ends the rebellion, and the initiation Of
emancipation completely deprivcs them Of it. As
20 all the States initiating it, the point is not that
al the States tolerating slavery would very soon
II at an initiate emancipation, but that while the
offer is equally made to all, the more polthern
shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the
ever JON the latter in their proposed confedcracy.
say initiation because, In my Judgment, gra-
dual and not sudden emancipation is better for
all


, In the mere Gnarcial or pecnniary view, any
member Of Congress, with the census tables
and the Treasury reports before HIM,
current expenditures of the war would purchase
at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named
Etatc. Such proposition on the part of the gene
rsl government sets mp no claim Of a right by
federal authority to interfere with slavery within
State limits, referring, it does the absolute con-
troll of the subject in each case to the State and
its people Immediately interested. II is proposed
o. matter Of perfectly free choice with them. In
the annual message last December ! thought fit to
cay -" The Union must be preserved, and hence
all indispensable means must be employed" I
eaid this not hastily, but deliberately. War has
been ard continues to be an indispensable means
10 this end. practical ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
the national authority would render the war un.
necessary, ard it would at once cease IT. how
ever resistance continues, the war must also con-
tinue, and II is impossible to forcsec all the Incl.
dents which may attend 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 come.


The proposition now made, though an offer only,
hope it may be esteemed 70 offence to ask
whether the pccuniaIy consideration rendered
would not be of more value td the S ates and pri.
sate persons concerned than are the institution
and properly n it, in the present aspect of aairs'
While it is true that the adoption Of the proposed
resolution would be merely initia.ory, and not
within itself a practical measure, i is recon-
mendcd in the hope that it would soon lead to i'm.
portant results.


In full view Of my great responsibility to nv
God and to my country, earnestly beg the atten.
zion Of Congress and the people to the subject


ABRAHAM LINCOLN.


GEN ETIAL NEWS.