nt 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 time, or by degrees
extending over the whole or any part of
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