ssurance 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 the period; and
it obliges no two States to proceed alike. It also provides for
compensation,--and generally, the mode of making it. This, it would
seem, must further mitigate the dissatisfaction of those who favor
perpetual Slavery, and especially of those who are to receive the
compensation. Doubtless some of those who are to pay, and not to
receive, will object. Yet the measure is both just and economical.

"In a certain sense, the liberation of Slaves is the destruction of
Property--Property acquired by descent, or by purchase, the same as any
other property. It is no less true for having been often said, that the
people of the South are not more responsible for the original
introduction of this Property than are the people of the North; and when
it is remembered how unhesitatingly we all use cotton and sugar, and
share the profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite safe to say
that the South has been more responsible than the North for its
continuance.

"If, then, for a common object, this Property is to be sacrificed, is it
not just that it be done at a common charge?

"And if, with less money, or money more easily paid, we can preserve the
benefits of the Union by this means than we can by the War alone, is it
not also economical to do it? Let us consider it then. Let us
ascertain the sum we have expended in the War since compensated
Emancipation was proposed last March, and consider whether, if that
measure had been promptly accepted, by even some of the Slave States,
the same sum would not have done more to close the War than has been
otherwise done. If so, the measure would save money, and, in that view,
would be a prudent and economical measure.

"Certainly it is not so easy to pay something as it is to pay nothing;
but it is easier to pay a large sum than it is to pay a larger one. And
it is easier to pay any sum when we are able, than it is to pay it
before we are able. The War requires large sums, and requires them at
once.

"The aggregate sum necessary for compensated Emancipation of course
would be large. But it would require no ready cash, nor the bonds,
even, any faster than the Emancipation progresses. This might not, and
probably