ocument announced a renewal of
the plan of compensated abolishment, a continuance of the effort at
voluntary colonization, a promise to recommend ultimate compensation to
loyal owners, and--

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any
State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be
in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever free; and the executive government of the United States,
including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
their actual freedom."

Pursuant to these announcements, the President's annual message of
December 1, 1862, recommended to Congress the passage of a joint
resolution proposing to the legislatures of the several States a
constitutional amendment consisting of three articles, namely: One
providing compensation in bonds for every State which should abolish
slavery before the year 1900; another securing freedom to all slaves
who, during the rebellion, had enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of
war--also providing compensation to legal owners; the third authorizing
Congress to provide for colonization. The long and practical argument in
which he renewed this plan, "not in exclusion of, but additional to, all
others for restoring and preserving the national authority throughout
the Union," concluded with the following eloquent sentences:

"We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine
better?' but, 'Can we all do better?' Object whatsoever 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 difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new,
so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and
then we shall save our country.

"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and
this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of
us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor
or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The
world will not forget that we say this. We know how to