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 cannot 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 laws 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, cannot 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
cannot do this. They cannot 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 cannot 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 Alleghenies, 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 statistics the small proportion of the region which
has yet been brought into cultivation, and also the large and rapidly
increasing amount of 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 instalments 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 tune, 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 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...............
[a page of tables of projected statistics]
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
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 cannot
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 six 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 six 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 nut 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 cannot 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, cannot 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.