clearly shown, the free black would find a home.
There, also, as the _slaves_, in the lapse of time, from the density of
population and other causes, are _emancipated_, they will disappear,
from time to time, west of the Del Norte, and beyond the limits of the
Union, and among a race of their own color will be diffused through this
vast region, where they will not be a _degraded caste_, and where, as to
climate and social and moral condition, and all the hopes and comforts
of life, they can occupy, _amid equals_, a position they can never
attain in any part of this Union.'

This, it is true, was a slow process, but it was peaceful, progressive,
and certain, especially when Texas should have been checkered by
railroads, and her system connected with that of the South and of
Mexico. I desired then, however, to accelerate this action, by making it
a part of the _compact_ of Texas with the Federal Government, that the
proceeds of the sales of her public lands, exceeding two hundred
millions of acres, should be devoted in aid of the colonization
described in this extract. The principle, however, was adopted of State
action by irrevocable _compact_ with the Federal Government, by which,
provision therein was made for abolishing slavery in all such States
north of a certain parallel of latitude (embracing a territory larger
than New England), as might be thereafter admitted by subdivision of the
State of Texas. The power of action on this subject, by _compact_ of a
State with the General Government, was then clearly established, in
perfect accordance with repeated previous acts of Congress, then cited
by me. The doctrine rests upon the elemental principle of the combined
authority of the nation, and a State, acting by compact within its
limits.

It being clearly our interest and duty to adopt this system of gradual
emancipation in the loyal States, with colonization abroad, aided by
Congress, the constitutional power being unquestionable, and the
expense comparatively small (less than a few months' cost of the war,)
it is a signal mark of that special Providence, which has so often
shielded our beloved country from imminent peril, that the President of
the United States should have recommended, and Congress should have
adopted, by so large a majority, this _very system_, by which slavery
might soon disappear, at least from the border States. In making an
appropriation for gradual emancipation and colonization, so much of the