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 abolishme