"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 pro. mises so certain results, and 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 labour against the evils of a vicious currency, and facilitate commerce by cheap and safe exchanges.

...

"The receipts into the Treasury from all sources, including loans and balance from the preceeding year, for the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June, 1862 were 583,885,247 dollars 6 cents, of which sum 49,056,397 dollars 62 cents, was derived from Customs; 1,795,231 dollars 73 cents, from the direct tax; from public lands, 152,203 dollars 77 cents; from miscellaneous sources, 931,787 dollars 64 cents; from loans in all form, 529,692,460dollars 50 cents. The remainder,

2,257,065 dollars 80 cents, was the balance from last year. The disbursements during the same period were: -For Congressional, Executive, and Judicial purposes, 5,939,009 dollars 29 cents; for foreign intercourse, 1,339,710 35 cents; for miscellaneous expenses, including the Mints, loans, Post-office deficiencies, collection of revenue, and other like charges, 14,129,771 dollars 50 cents; for expenses under the Interior Department, 3,102,985 dollars 52 cents; under the War Department, 394,368,407 dollars 36 cents; under the Navy Department, 42,674,569 dollars 69 cents; for interest on the public debt, 13,190,324 dollars 45 cents; and forthe payment of the public debt, including reimbursement of temporary loans and redemptions, 96,096,922 dollars 9 cents; making an aggregate of 570,841,700 dollars 25 cents; and leaving a balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1862, of 13,043,546 dollars 81 cents. should be observed that the sum of 96,096,922 dollars 9 cents, expended for reimbursements and redemption of the public debt, being included also in the loans made, may be properly deducted both from the receipts and expenditures, leaving the actual receipts for the year 487,788,324 dollars 97 cents, and the penditures 474,744,788 dollars 16 cents. 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.

It

ex

"On the 22nd 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 for ever. 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 production are of advantage in this age for one people, whatever they might have been in former ages. Steam and telegraphs, in intelligence, have brought these to be an advantageous combination for one united people....

"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 well 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 national

VOL. CIV.

a

boundary. The fact of separation, if it comes, gives up on the part of the sectional obligations upon 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. Thegreat interiorregion 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 Dakotah, Nebraska, and part of Colorado, has about 10 millions of people and will have 50 millions within 50 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 of square miles. If half as populous as Massachusetts already is, it would have more than 75,000,000 of 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 almost 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 [R]

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 for ever 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 countrymen 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 the 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 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 for ever. 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 inte

rested 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, the 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 itcannot, without convulsion, be hushed for ever with the passing of one generation.

"In this view I recommend the adoption of the following Resolution and Articles amendatory of 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 a part or parts of the said Constitution, viz:

""Article. Every State wherein slavery now exists which shall abolish the same therein at any time or times before the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 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 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, and afterward. Any State having received bonds as aforesaid, and afterwards introducing

or tolerating slavery therein, shall refund to the United States the bonds so received, or the value thereof, and all interest paid thereon.

""Article.

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 for ever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rate as is provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such a way that no slave shall be twice accounted for.

""Article.-Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for colonizing free coloured persons with their own consent, at any place or places without the United States." "

The Message then proceeded to discuss these proposed Articles at considerable length. We need only give the following passages :

"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 the capacity to contain 217,186,000; and we will reach this, too, if we do not ourselves relinquish the chances 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 indefi

nitely would retard the 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 the population, and proportionately of the wealth of the country. With this we should pay all the emancipation would cost, together with our other debts, easier than we should pay our other debts without it.

"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 than can be done by force alone, while it would cost less consider ing amounts and manner of payment, and times of payment, and the amounts would be easier paid than will be the additional cost of the war, if we rely solely upon force.

"Is it most likely-very likely -that it would cost no blood at all. The plan is proposed as permanent constitutional law. It cannot become such, without the concurrence of, first, two-thirds of Congress, and afterwards, threefourths 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 distant day upon the new constitutional terms. This assurance would end the struggle now and save the Union for ever.

"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 wheresoever 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 difficulties, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthral ouselves, and then we shall save our country.

"Fellow - citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can