perty than are the people of the North; and when it is
remembered how unhesitatingly we all use cotton and sugar and share the
profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite 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 millions of 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 2,963,000
squar