he rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation
completely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. The
point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at
all, initiate emancipation; but that, while the offer is equally made to
all, the more northern shall by such initiation make it certain to the
more southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in
their proposed confederacy. I say "initiation" because, in my judgment,
gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere
financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress with the census tables
and treasury reports before him can readily see for himself how very soon
the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation,
all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the
General Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to
interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the
absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people
immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free
choice with them.

In the annual message last December, I thought fit to say, "The Union must
be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed." I said
this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made and continues to be
an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the
national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once
cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and
it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the
ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously
promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come.

The proposition now made (though an offer only), I hope it may be esteemed
no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not
be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the
institution and property in it in the present aspect of affairs.

While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would
be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is
recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical
results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my
country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the
subject.