agreeing with me in the general wish that all men
everywhere could be free. He proclaimed all men free within certain
States, and I repudiated the proclamation. He expected more good and
less harm from the measure than I could believe would follow. Yet in
repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction if not offence to many whose
support the country cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of
it. The pressure in this direction is still upon me, and is increasing.
By conceding what I now ask, you can relieve me, and, much more, can
relieve the country, in this important point.

Upon these considerations I have again begged your attention to the
message of March last. Before leaving the Capitol, consider and discuss
it among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such, I pray
you, consider this proposition, and at the least commend it to the
consideration of your States and people. As you would perpetuate popular
government for the best people in the world, I beseech you that you do
in no wise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding
the loftiest views and boldest action to bring it speedy relief. Once
relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its beloved
history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its happy future
fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand.

I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my opinion,
if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual-emancipation
message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended. And the
plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift means of
ending it. Let the States which are in rebellion see, definitely and
certainly, that in no event will the States you represent ever join
their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the
contest. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you
with them, so long as you show a determination to perpetuate the
institution within your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have
overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their
own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever
before their faces, and they can shake you no more for ever.

Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration, and I trust
you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively your own,
when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask, Can you, for your
States, do