eir native States for
the production of cotton and sugar, so that the former course of things
may be as little interrupted as possible, except in the altered
condition of the laborers. The lands which will fall into our possession
ought to be immediately prepared for cultivation, and the new system of
free labor put into practical operation at the earliest moment. The
improvement and education of the laborer ought to be considered quite as
carefully as the success and productiveness of his work. Our armies will
be able to give ample protection to the communities which may be
organized under this arrangement; the lands, by the confiscation act,
will easily be made available to carry out the scheme; and, doubtless,
any number of Union men will be found in all parts of the South, to
cooeperate in this plan, by the inducement of a fair participation in its
legitimate profits. It will be easy to prevent the system from
degenerating so as to admit any of the old habits of slavery, or to
tolerate any of its oppressions and inhuman practices. In the course of
time, the present slaveholders themselves, humbled and subdued, as we
hope they soon will be, will find themselves compelled to acquiesce in
the policy of the Government, and, in the end, will acknowledge the
wisdom of the proceeding which substitutes paid and educated labor for
that pernicious system of slavery which has blinded and deluded them to
their own destruction. Eventually, though gradually, it may well be
anticipated, white labor will be employed in the growth of cotton. The
Africans will find their advantage in removing farther south, perhaps to
Central America, possibly to Africa; and, before many years, the
productions of the teeming South will far surpass what they have been,
or could be, under the reign of slavery.

We forbear to make any suggestion as to the details of the proposed
system. The wisdom of Congress, aided by the experience and the advice
of the Executive, will no doubt be sufficient for the great exigency.
But in any plan which may be adopted, certain general principles must
obtain. They must look to these cardinal points: the actual and complete
emancipation of the slave, and his education as far as possible; his
subordination to just and necessary, though humane laws which may be
made for his control; and, finally, the usefulness and productiveness of
his industry, with a fair proportion of the profits allowed to himself,
in some proper for