Speech Transcript:

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

Since your last annual assembling another year of health and
bountiful harvests has passed, and while it has not pleased the
Almighty to bless us with a return of peace, we can but press on,
guided by the best light He gives us, trusting that in His own good
time and wise way all will yet be well.

The correspondence touching foreign affairs which has taken place
during the last year is herewith submitted, in virtual compliance
with a request to that effect made by the House of Representatives
near the close of the last session of Congress. If the condition of
our relations with other nations is less gratifying than it has
usually been at former periods, it is certainly more satisfactory
than a nation so unhappily distracted as we are might reasonably have
apprehended. In the month of June last there were some grounds to
expect that the maritime powers which at the beginning of our
domestic difficulties so unwisely and unnecessarily, as we think,
recognized the insurgents as a belligerent would soon recede from
that position, which has proved only less injurious to themselves
than to our own country. But the temporary reverses which afterwards
befell the national arms, and which were exaggerated by our own
disloyal citizens abroad, have hitherto delayed that act of simple
justice.

The civil war, which has so radically changed for the moment the
occupations and habits of the American people, has necessarily
disturbed the social condition and affected very deeply the
prosperity of the nations with which we have carried on a commerce
that has been steadily increasing throughout a period of half a
century. It has at the same time excited political ambitions and
apprehensions which have produced a profound agitation throughout the
civilized world. In this unusual agitation we have forborne from
taking part in any controversy between foreign states and between
parties or factions in such states. We have attempted no propagandism
and acknowledged no revolution. But we have left to every nation the
exclusive conduct and management of its own affairs. Our struggle has
been, of course, contemplated by foreign nations with reference less
to its own merits than to its supposed and often exaggerated effects
and consequences resulting to those nations themselves. Nevertheless,
complaint on the part of this Government, even if it were just, would
certainly be unwise. The treaty with Great Britain for the
suppression of the slave trade has been put into operation with a
good prospect of complete success. It is an occasion of special
pleasure to acknowledge that the execution of it on the part of Her
Majesty's Government has been marked with a jealous respect for the
authority of the United States and the rights of their moral and
loyal citizens.

The convention with Hanover for the abolition of the Stade dues has
been carried into full effect under the act of Congress for that
purpose. A blockade of 3,000 miles of seacoast could not be
established and vigorously enforced in a season of great commercial
activity like the present without committing occasional mistakes and
inflicting unintentional injuries upon foreign nations and their
subjects. A civil war occurring in a country, where foreigners reside
and carry on trade under treaty stipulations is necessarily fruitful
of complaints of the violation of neutral rights. All such collisions
tend to excite misapprehensions, and possibly to produce mutual
reclamations between nations which have a common interest in
preserving peace and friendship. In clear cases of these kinds I have
so far as possible heard and redressed complaints which have been
presented by friendly powers. There is still, however, a large and an
augmenting number of doubtful cases upon which the Government is
unable to agree with the governments whose protection is demanded by
the claimants. There are, moreover, many cases in which the United
States or their citizens suffer wrongs from the naval or military
authorities of foreign nations which the governments of those states
are not at once prepared to redress. I have proposed to some of the
foreign states thus interested mutual conventions to examine and
adjust such complaints. This proposition has been made especially to
Great Britain, to France, to Spain, and to Prussia. In each case it
has been kindly received, but has not yet been formally adopted.

I deem it my duty to recommend an appropriation in behalf of the
owners of the Norwegian bark Admiral P. Tordenskiold, which vessel
was in May, 1861, prevented by the commander of the blockading force
off Charleston from leaving that port with cargo, notwithstanding a
similar privilege had shortly before been granted to an English
vessel. I have directed the Secretary of State to cause the papers in
the case to be communicated to the proper committees.

Applications have been made to me by many free Americans of African
descent to favor their emigration, with a view to such colonization
as was contemplated in recent acts of Congress. Other parties, at
home and abroad--some from interested motives, others upon patriotic
considerations, and still others influenced by philanthropic
sentiments--have suggested similar measures, while, on the other
hand, several of the Spanish American Republics have protested
against the sending of such colonies to their respective territories.
Under these circumstances I have declined to move any such colony to
any state without first obtaining the consent of its government, with
an agreement on its part to receive and protect such emigrants in all
the rights of freemen; and I have at the same time offered to the
several States situated within the Tropics, or having colonies there,
to negotiate with them, subject to the advice and consent of the
Senate, to favor the voluntary emigration of persons of that class to
their respective territories, upon conditions which shall be equal,
just, and humane. Liberia and Hayti are as yet the only countries to
which colonists of African descent from here could go with certainty
of being received and adopted as citizens; and I regret to say such
persons contemplating colonization do not seem so willing to migrate
to those countries as to some others, nor so willing as I think their
interest demands. I believe, however, opinion among them in this
respect is improving, and that ere long there will be an augmented
and considerable migration to both these countries from the United
States.

The new commercial treaty between the United States and the Sultan of
Turkey has been carried into execution.

A commercial and consular treaty has been negotiated, subject to the
Senate's consent, with Liberia, and a similar negotiation is now
pending with the Republic of Hayti. A considerable improvement of the
national commerce is expected to result from these measures. Our
relations with Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Russia,
Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Rome, and
the other European States remain undisturbed. Very favorable
relations also continue to be maintained with Turkey, Morocco, China,
and Japan.

During the last year there has not only been no change of our
previous relations with the independent States of our own continent,
but more friendly sentiments than have heretofore existed are
believed to be entertained by these neighbors, whose safety and
progress are so intimately connected with our own. This statement
especially applies to Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru,
and Chile. The commission under the convention with the Republic of
New Granada closed its session without having audited and passed upon
all the claims which were submitted to it. A proposition is pending to
revive the convention, that it may be able to do more complete
justice. The joint commission between the United States and the
Republic of Costa Rica has completed its labors and submitted its
report. I have favored the project for connecting the United States
with Europe by an Atlantic telegraph, and a similar project to extend
the telegraph from San Francisco to connect by a Pacific telegraph
with the line which is being extended across the Russian Empire. The
Territories of the United States, with unimportant exceptions have
remained undisturbed by the civil war; and they are exhibiting such
evidence of prosperity as justifies an expectation that some of them
will soon be in a condition to be organized as States and be
constitutionally admitted into the Federal Union.

The immense mineral resources of some of those Territories ought to
be developed as rapidly as possible. Every step in that direction
would have a tendency to improve the revenues of the Government and
diminish the burdens of the people. It is worthy of your serious
consideration whether some extraordinary measures to promote that end
can not be adopted. The means which suggests itself as most likely to
be effective is a scientific exploration of the mineral regions in
those Territories with a view to the publication of its results at
home and in foreign countries--results which can not fail to be
auspicious.

The condition of the finances will claim your most diligent
consideration. The vast expenditures incident to the military and
naval operations required for the suppression of the rebellion have
hitherto been met with a promptitude and certainty unusual in similar
circumstances, and the public credit has been fully maintained. The
continuance of the war, however, and the increased disbursements made
necessary by the augmented forces now in the field demand your best
reflections as to the best modes of providing the necessary revenue
without injury to business and with the least possible burdens upon
labor.

The suspension of specie payments by the banks soon after the
commencement of your last session made large issues of United States
notes unavoidable. In no other way could the payment of the troops
and the satisfaction of other just demands be so economically or so
well provided for. The judicious legislation of Congress, securing
the receivability of these notes for loans and internal duties and
making them a legal tender for other debts, has made them an
universal currency, and has satisfied, partially at least, and for
the time, the long-felt want of an uniform circulating medium, saving
thereby to the people immense sums in discounts and exchanges.

A return to specie payments, however, at the earliest period
compatible with due regard to all interests concerned should ever be
kept in view. Fluctuations in the value of currency are always
injurious, and to reduce these fluctuations to the lowest possible
point will always be a leading purpose in wise legislation.
Convertibility, prompt and certain convertibility, into coin is
generally acknowledged to be the best and surest safeguard against
them; and it is extremely doubtful whether a circulation of United
States notes payable in coin and sufficiently large for the wants of
the people can be permanently, usefully, and safely maintained.

Is there, then, any other mode in which the necessary provision for
the public wants can be made and the great advantages of a safe and
uniform currency secured?

I know of none which promises so certain results and is at the same
time so unobjectionable as the organization of banking associations,
under a general act of Congress, well guarded in its provisions. To
such associations the Government might furnish circulating notes, on
the security of United States bonds deposited in the Treasury. These
notes, prepared under the supervision of proper officers, being
uniform in appearance and security and convertible always into coin,
would at once protect labor against the evils of a vicious currency
and facilitate commerce by cheap and safe exchanges.

A moderate reservation from the interest on the bonds would
compensate the United States for the preparation and distribution of
the notes and a general supervision of the system, and would lighten
the burden of that part of the public debt employed as securities.
The public credit, moreover, would be greatly improved and the
negotiation of new loans greatly facilitated by the steady market
demand for Government bonds which the adoption of the proposed system
would create. It is an additional recommendation of the measure, of
considerable weight, in my judgment, that it would reconcile as far
as possible all existing interests by the opportunity offered to
existing institutions to reorganize under the act, substituting only
the secured uniform national circulation for the local and various
circulation, secured and unsecured, now issued by them.

The receipts into the treasury from all sources, including loans and
balance from the preceding year, for the fiscal year ending on the
30th June, 1862, were $583,885,247.06, of which sum $49,056,397.62
were derived from customs; $1,795,331.73 from the direct tax; from
public lands, $152,203.77; from miscellaneous sources, $931,787.64;
from loans in all forms, $529,692,460.50. The remainder,
:$2,257,065.80, was the balance from last year.

The disbursements during the same period were: For Congressional,
executive, and judicial purposes, $5,939.009.29; for foreign
intercourse, $1,339,710.35; for miscellaneous expenses, including the
mints, loans, Post-Office deficiencies, collection of revenue, and
other like charges, $14,129,771.50; for expenses under the Interior
Department, 985.52; under the War Department, $394,368,407.36; under
the Navy Department, $42,674,569.69; for interest on public debt,
$13,190,324.45; and for payment of public debt, including
reimbursement of temporary loan and redemptions, $96,096,922.09;
making an aggregate of $570,841,700.25, and leaving a balance in the
Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1862, of $13,043,546.81.

It should be observed that the sum of $96,096,922.09, expended for
reimbursements and redemption of public debt, being included also in
the loans made, may be properly deducted both from receipts and
expenditures, leaving the actual receipts for the year
$487,788,324.97, and the expenditures $474,744,778.16.

Other information on the subject of the finances will be found in the
report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to whose statements and views
I invite your most candid and considerate attention.

The reports of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy are herewith
transmitted. These reports, though lengthy, are scarcely more than
brief abstracts of the very numerous and extensive transactions and
operations conducted through those Departments. Nor could I give a
summary of them here upon any principle which would admit of its
being much shorter than the reports themselves. I therefore content
myself with laying the reports before you and asking your attention
to them.

It gives me pleasure to report a decided improvement in the financial
condition of the Post-Office Department as compared with several
preceding years. The receipts for the fiscal year 1861 amounted to
$8,349,296.40, which embraced the revenue from all the States of the
Union for three quarters of that year. Notwithstanding the cessation
of revenue from the so-called seceded States during the last fiscal
year, the increase of the correspondence of the loyal States has been
sufficient to produce a revenue during the same year of $8,299,820.90,
being only $50,000 less than was derived from all the States of the
Union during the previous year. The expenditures show a still more
favorable result. The amount expended in 1861 was $13,606,759.11. For
the last year the amount has been reduced to $11,125,364.13, showing a
decrease of about $2,481,000 in the expenditures as compared with the
preceding year, and about $3,750,000 as compared with the fiscal year
1860. The deficiency in the Department for the previous year was
$4,551,966.98. For the last fiscal year it was reduced to
$2,112,814.57. These favorable results are in part owing to the
cessation of mail service in the insurrectionary States and in part
to a careful review of all expenditures in that Department in the
interest of economy. The efficiency of the postal service, it is
believed, has also been much improved. The Postmaster-General has
also opened a correspondence through the Department of State with
foreign governments proposing a convention of postal representatives
for the purpose of simplifying the rates of foreign postage and to
expedite the foreign mails. This proposition, equally important to
our adopted citizens and to the commercial interests of this country,
has been favorably entertained and agreed to by all the governments
from whom replies have been received.

I ask the attention of Congress to the suggestions of the
Postmaster-General in his report respecting the further legislation
required, in his opinion, for the benefit of the postal service.

The Secretary of the Interior reports as follows in regard to the
public lands: The public lands have ceased to be a source of revenue.
From the 1st July, 1861, to the 30th September, 1862, the entire cash
receipts from the sale of lands were $137,476.26--a sum much less
than the expenses of our land system during the same period. The
homestead law, which will take effect on the 1st of January next,
offers such inducements to settlers that sales for cash can not be
expected to an extent sufficient to meet the expenses of the General
Land Office and the cost of surveying and bringing the land into
market.

The discrepancy between the sum here stated as arising from the sales
of the public lands and the sum derived from the same source as
reported from the Treasury Department arises, as I understand, from
the fact that the periods of time, though apparently, were not really
coincident at the beginning point, the Treasury report including a
considerable sum now which had previously been reported from the
Interior, sufficiently large to greatly overreach the sum derived
from the three months now reported upon by the Interior and not by
the Treasury. The Indian tribes upon our frontiers have during the
past year manifested a spirit of insubordination, and at several
points have engaged in open hostilities against the white settlements
in their vicinity. The tribes occupying the Indian country south of
Kansas renounced their allegiance to the United States and entered
into treaties with the insurgents. Those who remained loyal to the
United States were driven from the country. The chief of the
Cherokees has visited this city for the purpose of restoring the
former relations of the tribe with the United States. He alleges that
they were constrained by superior force to enter into treaties with
the insurgents, and that the United States neglected to furnish the
protection which their treaty stipulations required.

In the month of August last the Sioux Indians in Minnesota attacked
the settlements in their vicinity with extreme ferocity, killing
indiscriminately men, women, and children. This attack was wholly
unexpected, and therefore no means of defense had been prodded. It is
estimated that not less than 800 persons were killed by the Indians,
and a large amount of property was destroyed. How this outbreak was
induced is not definitely known, and suspicions, which may be unjust,
need not to be stated. Information was received by the Indian Bureau
from different sources about the time hostilities were commenced that
a simultaneous attack was to be made upon the white settlements by all
the tribes between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The
State of Minnesota has suffered great injury from this Indian war. A
large portion of her territory has been depopulated, and a severe
loss has been sustained by the destruction of property. The people of
that State manifest much anxiety for the removal of the tribes beyond
the limits of the State as a guaranty against future hostilities. The
Commissioner of Indian Affairs will furnish full details. I submit for
your especial consideration whether our Indian system shall not be
remodeled. Many wise and good men have impressed me with the belief
that this can be profitably done.

I submit a statement of the proceedings of commissioners, which shows
the progress that has been made in the enterprise of constructing the
Pacific Railroad. And this suggests the earliest completion of this
road, and also the favorable action of Congress upon the projects now
pending before them for enlarging the capacities of the great canals
in New York and Illinois, as being of vital and rapidly increasing
importance to the whole nation, and especially to the vast interior
region hereinafter to be noticed at some greater length. I purpose
having prepared and laid before you at an early day some interesting
and valuable statistical information upon this subject. The military
and commercial importance of enlarging the Illinois and Michigan
Canal and improving the Illinois River is presented in the report of
Colonel Webster to the Secretary of War, and now transmitted to
Congress. I respectfully ask attention to it.

To carry out the provisions of the act of Congress of the 15th of May
last, I have caused the Department of Agriculture of the United States
to be organized.

The Commissioner informs me that within the period of a few months
this Department has established an extensive system of correspondence
and exchanges, both at home and abroad, which promises to effect
highly beneficial results in the development of a correct knowledge
of recent improvements in agriculture, in the introduction of new
products, and in the collection of the agricultural statistics of the
different States.

Also, that it will soon be prepared to distribute largely seeds,
cereals, plants, and cuttings, and has already published and
liberally diffused much valuable information in anticipation of a
more elaborate report, which will in due time be furnished, embracing
some valuable tests in chemical science now in progress in the
laboratory.

The creation of this Department was for the more immediate benefit of
a large class of our most valuable citizens, and I trust that the
liberal basis upon which it has been organized will not only meet
your approbation, but that it will realize at no distant day all the
fondest anticipations of its most sanguine friends and become the
fruitful source of advantage to all our people.

On the 22d day of September last a proclamation was issued by the
Executive, a copy of which is herewith submitted. In accordance with
the purpose expressed in the second paragraph of that paper, I now
respectfully recall your attention to what may be called "compensated
emancipation."

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its
laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.
"One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the
earth abideth forever." It is of the first importance to duly
consider and estimate this ever-enduring part. That portion of the
earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the people of the
United States is well adapted to be the home of one national family,
and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent and its
variety of climate and productions are of advantage in this age for
one people, whatever they might have been in former ages. Steam,
telegraphs, and intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous
combination for one united people.

In the inaugural address I briefly pointed out the total inadequacy
of disunion as a remedy for the differences between the people of the
two sections. I did so in language which I can not improve, and which,
therefore, I beg to repeat: One section of our country believes
slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes
it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only
substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution
and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each
as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community
where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law
itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal
obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This I think,
can not be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after
the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade,
now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without
restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially
surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. Physically
speaking, we can not separate. We can not remove our respective
sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A
husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond
the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country can
not do this. They can not but remain face to face, and intercourse,
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them, Is it
possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more
satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties
easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully
enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go
to war, you can not fight always; and when, after much loss on both
sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old
questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. There is
no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary upon
which to divide. Trace through, from east to west, upon the line
between the free and slave country, and we shall find a little more
than one-third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and
populated, or soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides; while
nearly all its remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over
which people may walk back and forth without any consciousness of
their presence. No part of this line can be made any more difficult
to pass by writing it down on paper or parchment as a national
boundary. The fact of separation, if it comes, gives up on the part
of the seceding section the fugitive-slave clause, along with all
other constitutional obligations upon the section seceded from, while
I should expect no treaty stipulation would ever be made to take its
place.

But there is another difficulty. The great interior region bounded
east by the Alleghanies, north by the British dominions, west by the
Rocky Mountains, and south by the line along which the culture of
corn and cotton meets, and which includes part of Virginia, part of
Tennessee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of
Dakota, Nebraska, and part of Colorado, already has above 10,000,000
people, and will have 50,000,000 within fifty years if not prevented
by any political folly or mistake. It contains more than one-third of
the country owned by the United States--certainly more than 1,000,000
square miles. Once half as populous as Massachusetts already is, it
would have more than 75,000,000 people. A glance at the map shows
that, territorially speaking, it is the great body of the Republic.
The other parts are but marginal borders to it. The magnificent
region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific being the
deepest and also the richest in undeveloped resources. In the
production of provisions grains, grasses, and all which proceed from
them this great interior region is naturally one of the most
important in the world. Ascertain from the statistics the small
proportion of the region which has as yet been brought into
cultivation, and also the large and rapidly increasing amount of its
products, and we shall be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the
prospect presented. And yet this region has no seacoast--touches no
ocean anywhere. As part of one nation, its people now find, and may
forever find, their way to Europe by New York, to South America and
Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco; but separate our
common country into two nations, as designed by the present rebellion,
and every man of this great interior region is thereby cut off from
some one or more of these outlets, not perhaps by a physical barrier,
but by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations.

And this is true, wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed.
Place it between the now free and slave country, or place it south of
Kentucky or north of Ohio, and still the truth remains that none south
of it can trade to any port or place north of it, and none north of it
can trade to any port or place south of it, except upon terms dictated
by a government foreign to them. These outlets, east, west, and south,
are indispensable to the well-being of the people inhabiting and to
inhabit this vast interior region. Which of the three may be the best
is no proper question. All are better than either, and all of right
belong to that people and to their successors forever. True to
themselves, they will not ask where a line of separation shall be,
but will vow rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the
marginal regions less interested in these communications to and
through them to the great outside world. They, too, and each of them,
must have access to this Egypt of the West without paying toll at the
crossing of any national boundary.

Our national strife springs not from our permanent part; not from the
land we inhabit: not from our national homestead. There is no possible
severing of this but would multiply and not mitigate evils among us.
In all its adaptations and aptitudes it demands union and abhors
separation. In fact, it would ere long force reunion, however much of
blood and treasure the separation might have cost. Our strife pertains
to ourselves--to the passing generations of men--and it can without
convulsion be hushed forever with the passing of one generation.

In this view I recommend the adoption of the following resolution and
articles amendatory to the Constitution of the United States: Resolved
by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of both Houses concurring),
That the following articles be proposed to the legislatures (or
conventions) of the several States as amendments to the Constitution
of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by
three-fourths of the said legislatures (or conventions ), to be valid
as part or parts of the said Constitution, viz:

ART.--. Every State wherein slavery now exists which shall abolish
the same therein at any time or times before the 1st day of January,
A. D. 1900, shall receive compensation from the United States as
follows, to wit:

The President of the United States shall deliver to every such State
bonds 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 abolishment, 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 its delivery as aforesaid. Any State having received
bonds as aforesaid and afterwards reintroducing or tolerating 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 enjoyed actual freedom by the chances
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 disloyal
shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is provided for
States adopting abolishment 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. I beg indulgence to discuss
these proposed articles at some length. Without slavery the rebellion
could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.

Among the friends of the Union there is great diversity of sentiment
and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race amongst us.
Some would perpetuate slavery; some would abolish it suddenly and
without compensation; some would abolish it gradually and with
compensation: some would remove the freed people from us, and some
would retain them with us; and there are yet other minor diversities.
Because of these diversities we waste much strength in struggles among
ourselves. By mutual concession we should harmonize and act together.
This would be compromise, but it would be compromise among the
friends and not with the enemies of the Union. These articles are
intended to embody a plan of such mutual concessions. If the plan
shall be adopted, it is assumed that emancipation will follow, at
least in several of the States.

As to the first article, the main points are, first, the
emancipation; secondly, the length of time for consummating it
(thirty-seven years); and, thirdly, the compensation.

The emancipation will be unsatisfactory to the advocates of perpetual
slavery, but the length of time should greatly mitigate their
dissatisfaction. The time spares both races from the evils of sudden
derangement--in fact, from the necessity of any derangement--while
most of those whose habitual course of thought will be disturbed by
the measure will have passed away before its consummation. They will
never see it. Another class will hail the prospect of emancipation,
but will deprecate the length of time. They will feel that it gives
too little to the now living slaves. But it really gives them much.
It saves them from the vagrant destitution which must largely attend
immediate emancipation in localities where their numbers are very
great, and it gives the inspiring assurance that their posterity
shall be free forever. The plan leaves to each State choosing to act
under it to abolish slavery now or at the end of the century, or at
any intermediate time, or by degrees extending over the whole or any
part of the period, and it obliges no two States to proceed alike. It
also provides for compensation, and generally the mode of making it.
This, it would seem, must further mitigate the dissatisfaction of
those who favor perpetual slavery, and especially of those who are to
receive the compensation. Doubtless some of those who are to pay and
not to receive will object. Yet the measure is both just and
economical. In a certain sense the liberation 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 it is remembered how unhesitatingly 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 common object this
property is to be sacrificed, is it not just that it be done at a
common charge?

And if with less money, or money more easily paid, we can preserve
the benefits of the Union by this means than we can by the war alone,
is it not also economical to do it? Let us consider it, then. Let us
ascertain the sum we have expended in the war since compensated
emancipation was proposed last March, and consider whether if that
measure had been promptly accepted by even some of the slave States
the same sum would not have done more to close the war than has been
otherwise done. If so, the measure would save money, and in that view
would be a prudent and economical measure. Certainly it is not so easy
to pay something as it is to pay nothing, but it is easier to pay a
large sum than it is to pay a larger one. And it is easier to pay any
sum when we are able than it is to pay it before we are able. The war
requires large sums, and requires them at once. The aggregate sum
necessary for compensated emancipation of course would be large. But
it would require no ready cash, nor the bonds even any faster than
the emancipation progresses. This might not, and probably would not,
close before the end of the thirty-seven years. At that time we shall
probably have a hundred millions of people to share the burden,
instead of thirty-one millions as now. And not only so, but the
increase of our population may be expected to continue for a long
time after that period as rapidly as before, because our territory
will not have become full. I do not state this inconsiderately. At
the same ratio of increase which we have maintained, on an average,
from our first national census, in 1790, until that of 1860, we
should in 1900 have a population of 103,208,415. And why may we not
continue that ratio far beyond that period? Our abundant room, our
broad national homestead, is our ample resource. Were our territory
as limited as are the British Isles, very certainly our population
could not expand as stated. Instead of receiving the foreign born as
now, we should be compelled to send part of the native born away. But
such is not our condition. We have 2,963,000 square miles. Europe has
3,800,000, with a population averaging 73 1/3 persons to the square
mile. Why may not our country at some time average as many? Is it
less fertile? Has it more waste surface by mountains, rivers, lakes,
deserts, or other causes? Is it inferior to Europe in any natural
advantage? If, then, we are at some time to be as populous as Europe,
how soon? As to when this may be, we can judge by the past and the
present; as to when it will be, if ever, depends much on whether we
maintain the Union. Several of our States are already above the
average of Europe 73 1/3 to the square mile. Massachusetts has 157;
Rhode Island, 133; Connecticut, 99; New York and New Jersey, each 80.
Also two other great States, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are not far below,
the former having 63 and the latter 59. The States already above the
European average, except New York, have increased in as rapid a ratio
since passing that point as ever before, while no one of them is equal
to some other parts of our country in natural capacity for sustaining
a dense population.

Taking the nation in the aggregate, and we find its population and
ratio of increase for the several decennial periods to be as
follows:

Year	 Population	 Ratio of increase
Per cent.
1790	 3,929,827	 ..........
1800	 5,304,937	 35.02
1810	 7,239,814	 36.45
1820	 9,638,131	 36.45
1830	 12,866,020	 33.49
1840	 17,069,453	 32.67
1850	 23,191,876	 35.87
1860	 31,443,790	 35.58
This shows an average decennial increase of 34.60 per cent in
population through the seventy years from our first to our last
census yet taken. It is seen that the ratio of increase at no one of
these seven periods is either 2 per cent below or 2 per cent above
the average, thus showing how inflexible, and consequently how
reliable, the law of increase in our case is. Assuming that it will
continue, it gives the following results:

Year	 Population
1870	 42,323,341
1880	 56,967,216
1890	 76,677,872
1900	 103,208,415
1910	 138,918,526
1920	 186,984,335
1930	 251,680,914
These figures show that our country may be as populous as Europe now
is at some point between 1920 and 1930--say about 1925--our
territory, at 73 1/3 persons to the square mile, being of capacity to
contain 217,186,000.

And we will reach this, too, if we do not ourselves relinquish the
chance by the folly and evils of disunion or by long and exhausting
war springing from the only great element of national discord among
us. While it can not be foreseen exactly how much one huge example of
secession, breeding lesser ones indefinitely, would retard population,
civilization, and prosperity, no one can doubt that the extent of it
would be very great and injurious.

The proposed emancipation would shorten the war, perpetuate peace,
insure this increase of population, and proportionately the wealth of
the country. With these we should pay all the emancipation would cost,
together with our other debt, easier than we should pay our other debt
without it. If we had allowed our old national debt to run at 6 per
cent per annum, simple interest, from the end of our revolutionary
struggle until to-day, without paying anything on either principal or
interest, each man of us would owe less upon that debt now than each
man owed upon it then; and this because our increase of men through
the whole period has been greater than 6 per cent--has run faster
than the interest upon the debt. Thus time alone relieves a debtor
nation, so long as its population increases faster than unpaid
interest accumulates on its debt.

This fact would be no excuse for delaying payment of what is justly
due, but it shows the great importance of time in this
connection--the great advantage of a policy by which we shall not
have to pay until we number 100,000,000 what by a different policy we
would have to pay now, when we number but 31,000,000. In a word, it
shows that a dollar will be much harder to pay for the war than will
be a dollar for emancipation on the proposed plan. And then the
latter will cost no blood, no precious life. It will be a saving of
both.

As to the second article, I think it would be impracticable to return
to bondage the class of persons therein contemplated. Some of them,
doubtless, in the property sense belong to loyal owners, and hence
provision is made in this article for compensating such. The third
article relates to the future of the freed people. It does not
oblige, but merely authorizes Congress to aid in colonizing such as
may consent. This ought not to be regarded as objectionable on the
one hand or on the other, insomuch as it comes to nothing unless by
the mutual consent of the people to be deported and the American
voters, through their representatives in Congress.

I can not make it better known than it already is that I strongly
favor colonization; and yet I wish to say there is an objection urged
against free colored persons remaining in the country which is largely
imaginary, if not sometimes malicious.

It is insisted that their presence would injure and displace white
labor and white laborers. If there ever could be a proper time for
mere catch arguments, that time surely is not now. In times like the
present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly
be responsible through time and in eternity. Is it true, then, that
colored people can displace any more white labor by being free than
by remaining slaves? If they stay in their old places, they jostle no
white laborers; if they leave their old places, they leave them open
to white laborers. Logically, there is neither more nor less of it.
Emancipation, even without deportation, would probably enhance the
wages of white labor, and very surely would not reduce them. Thus the
customary amount of labor would still have to be performed--the freed
people would surely not do more than their old proportion of it, and
very probably for a time would do less, leaving an increased part to
white laborers, bringing their labor into greater demand, and
consequently enhancing the wages of it. With deportation, even to a
limited extent, enhanced wages to white labor is mathematically
certain. Labor is like any other commodity in the market--increase
the demand for it and you increase the price of it. Reduce the supply
of black labor by colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and
by precisely so much you increase the demand for and wages of white
labor.

But it is dreaded that the freed people will swarm forth and cover
the whole land. Are they not already in the land? Will liberation
make them any more numerous? Equally distributed among the whites of
the whole country, and there would be but one colored to seven
whites. Could the one in any way greatly disturb the seven? There are
many communities now having more than one free colored person to seven
whites and this without any apparent consciousness of evil from it.
The District of Columbia and the States of Maryland and Delaware are
all in this condition. The District has more than one free colored to
six whites, and yet in its frequent petitions to Congress I believe it
has never presented the presence of free colored persons as one of its
grievances. But why should emancipation South send the free people
North? People of any color seldom run unless there be something to
run from. Heretofore colored people to some extent have fled North
from bondage, and now, perhaps, from both bondage and destitution.
But if gradual emancipation and deportation be adopted, they will
have neither to flee from. Their old masters will give them wages at
least until new laborers can be procured, and the freedmen in turn
will gladly give their labor for the wages till new homes can be
found for them in congenial climes and with people of their own blood
and race. This proposition can be trusted on the mutual interests
involved. And in any event, can not the North decide for itself
whether to receive them?

Again, as practice proves more than theory in any case, has there
been any irruption of colored people northward because of the
abolishment of slavery in this District last spring?

What I have said of the proportion of free colored persons to the
whites in the District is from the census of 1860, having no
reference to persons called contrabands nor to those made free by the
act of Congress abolishing slavery here.

The plan consisting of these articles is recommended, not but that a
restoration of the national authority would be accepted without its
adoption.

Nor will the war nor proceedings under the proclamation of September
22, 1862, be stayed because of the recommendation of this plan. Its
timely adoption, I doubt not, would bring restoration, and thereby
stay both.

And notwithstanding this plan, the recommendation that Congress
provide by law for compensating any State which may adopt
emancipation before this plan shall have been acted upon is hereby
earnestly renewed. Such would be only an advance part of the plan,
and the same arguments apply to both.

This plan is recommended as a means, not in exclusion of, but
additional to, all others for restoring and preserving the national
authority throughout the Union. The subject is presented exclusively
in its economical aspect. The plan would, I am confident, secure
peace more speedily and maintain it more permanently than can be done
by force alone, while all it would cost, considering amounts and
manner of payment and times of payment, would be easier paid than
will be the additional cost of the war if we rely solely upon force.
It is much, very much, that it would cost no blood at all.

The plan is proposed as permanent constitutional law. It can not
become such without the concurrence of, first, two-thirds of
Congress, and afterwards three-fourths of the States. The requisite
three-fourths of the States will necessarily include seven of the
slave States. Their concurrence, if obtained, will give assurance of
their severally adopting emancipation at no very distant day upon the
new constitutional terms. This assurance would end the struggle now
and save the Union forever.

I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper
addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief Magistrate of
the nation, nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor that
many of you have more experience than I in the conduct of public
affairs. Yet I trust that in view of the great responsibility resting
upon me you will perceive no want of respect to yourselves in any
undue earnestness I may seem to display.

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would
shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of
blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and
national prosperity and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted
that we here--Congress and Executive can secure its adoption? Will
not the good people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us?
Can we, can they, by any other means so certainly or so speedily
assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not
"Can any of us imagine better?" but "Can we all do better?" Object
whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs, "Can we do
better?" The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise
with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act
anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our
country.

Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and
this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of
us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor
or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The
world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union.
The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the
power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we
assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give and what
we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of
earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain,
peaceful, generous, just--a way which if followed the world will
forever applaud and God must forever bless.