The government,
so far as there can be ownership, thus owns the forfeited slaves, and the
question for Congress in regard to them is, "Shall they be made free or
be sold to new masters?" I perceive no objection to Congress deciding in
advance that they shall be free. To the high honor of Kentucky, as I am
informed, she is the owner of some slaves by escheat, and has sold none,
but liberated all. I hope the same is true of some other States. Indeed,
I do not believe it will be physically possible for the General Government
to return persons so circumstanced to actual slavery. I believe there
would be physical resistance to it which could neither be turned aside
by argument nor driven away by force. In this view I have no objection to
this feature of the bill. Another matter involved in these two sections,
and running through other parts of the act, will be noticed hereafter.

I perceive no objection to the third or fourth sections.

So far as I wish to notice the fifth and sixth sections, they may be
considered together. That the enforcement of these sections would do no
injustice to the persons embraced within them, is clear. That those who
make a causeless war should be compelled to pay the cost of it, is too
obviously just to be called in question. To give governmental protection
to the property of persons who have abandoned it, and gone on a crusade to
overthrow the same government, is absurd, if considered in the mere light
of justice. The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
The principle of seizing and appropriating the property of the persons
embraced within these sections is certainly not very objectionable, but a
justly discriminating application of it would be very difficult and, to
a great extent, impossible. And would it not be wise to place a power of
remission somewhere, so that these persons may know they have something to
lose by persisting and something to gain by desisting?

[A man without hope is a most dangerous man--he has nothing to lose!]

I am not sure whether such power of remission is or is not in section
thirteen. Without any special act of Congress, I think our military
commanders, when--in military phrase, "they are within the enemy's
country," should, in an orderly manner, seize and use whatever of real or
personal property may be necessary or convenient for their commands; at
the same time preserving, in some way, the evidence of what they do.

What I have said in regard