Message from Lincoln.
The following message, asking the passage of a resolution in favor of the policy of making contributions from the Federal treasury to aid the States so disposed, to emancipate their slaves, was recently sent to Congress by Abraham Lincoln. A more hypocritical composition was never thrust before the world by a despot who occupies the Presidential chair at Washington. It will, however, have no other effect upon the South than to inspire the people with greater energy and determination to be free from the power which would crush them into subjection: Fellow-Citizens of the Senates and House of Representatives:--I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies which shall be substantially 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 pecuniary aid to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system." ’ If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I seem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self- preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Government will be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the 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 Southern section. To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that, in no event, will the former ever join the latter in their proposed Confederacy. I say initiation, because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables and Treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right, by Federal authority, to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them. In he annual message, last December, I thought fit to say: The Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed. I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue, and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents 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 is an offer only. I hope it may be esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs. While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results.--In full view of great responsibility to my God and to my country. I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject. [Signed]Abraham Lincoln.
As a sequel to the message of Lincoln, Mr. Conkling, of New York, moved, for the adaption of the House of Representatives, the resolution sketched in the message. After considerable debate, in which Mr. Crittenden as usual, employed and talked about the effect at this time, &c, the resolution was adopted — yeas 88, pays $1.
