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 would not, close before the end of the thirty-seven years. At
that time we shall probably have a hundred million people to share the
burden, instead of thirty-one millions, as now. And not only so, but
the increase of our population may be expected to continue, for a long
time after that period, as rapidly as before; because our territory will
not have become full.

"I do not state this inconsiderately. At the same ratio of increase
which we have maintained, on an average, from our first National census
in 1790, until that of 1860, we should, in 1900, have a population of
103,208,415. And why may we not continue that ratio far beyond that
period?

"Our abundant room--our broad National homestead--is our ample resource.
Were our territory as limited as are the British Isles, very certainly
our population could not expand as stated. Instead of receiving the
foreign born, as now, we should be compelled to send part of the
Native-born away.

"But such is not our condition. We have two million nine hundred and
sixty-three thousand square miles. Europe has three million and eight
hundred thousand, with a population averagi