esident then disclaimed any intent to injure the interests or wound
the sensibilities of the slave States. On the contrary, his purpose was to
protect the one and respect the other; that we were engaged in a terrible,
wasting, and tedious war; immense armies were in the field, and must
continue in the field as long as the war lasts; that these armies must,
of necessity, be brought into contact with slaves in the States we
represented and in other States as they advanced; that slaves would come
to the camps, and continual irritation was kept up; that he was constantly
annoyed by conflicting and antagonistic complaints: on the one side a
certain class complained if the slave was not protected by the army;
persons were frequently found who, participating in these views, acted
in a way unfriendly to the slaveholder; on the other hand, slaveholders
complained that their rights were interfered with, their slaves induced
to abscond and protected within the lines; these complaints were numerous,
loud and deep; were a serious annoyance to him and embarrassing to the
progress of the war; that it kept alive a spirit hostile to the government
in the States we represented; strengthened the hopes of the Confederates
that at some day the border States would unite with them, and thus tend
to prolong the war; and he was of opinion, if this resolution should be
adopted by Congress and accepted by our States, these causes of irritation
and these hopes would be removed, and more would be accomplished toward
shortening the war than could be hoped from the greatest victory achieved
by Union armies; that he made this proposition in good faith, and desired
it to be accepted, if at all, voluntarily, and in the same patriotic
spirit in which it was made; that emancipation was a subject exclusively
under the control of the States, and must be adopted or rejected by each
for itself; that he did not claim nor had this government any right to
coerce them for that purpose; that such was no part of his purpose in
making this proposition, and he wished it to be clearly understood; that
he did not expect us there to be prepared to give him an answer, but he
hoped we would take the subject into serious consideration, confer
with one another, and then take such course as we felt our duty and the
interests of our constituents required of us.

Mr. Noell, of Missouri, said that in his State slavery was not considered
a permanent institution; that natural cause