extent of territory exceeding the aggregate of the
following States:

Massachusetts, 7,800 square miles.
Connecticut, 4,674 square miles.
Rhode Island, l,306 square miles.
------
13,180 square miles.

Yet it is not many months since even this Tennessee region, it was
generally feared, would be false to the Union, on account of its
attachment to slavery.

The reader who has studied the facts which I have cited, indicating the
existence of a powerful Union party at the South (and the facts are few
and weak compared to the vast mass which exist, and which are known to
government), may judge for himself whether that party is Union _in spite
of pro-slavery principles_, as so many would have us believe. Let him
see where these Union men are found, where they have come forth with the
greatest enthusiasm, and _then_ say that he believes they are friends to
slavery. Let him bear in mind the hundreds of thousands of acres, the
vast tracts, equal in extent to whole Northern States, in the South,
which are unfitted for slave labor, and reflect whether the inhabitants
of these cool, temperate regions are not as conscious of their
inadaptability to slave labor as he is himself; and whether _they_ are
so much attached to the institution which fosters the Satanic pride,
panders to the passions, and corrupts the children of the planter of the
low country.

Since writing the above, the long-expected declaration of President
LINCOLN has appeared in favor of adopting a plan which may lead to the
gradual abolishment of slavery. He proposes that the United States shall
cooeperate with such slave States as may desire Emancipation, by giving
such pecuniary aid as may compensate for any losses incurred. No
interference with State rights or claims to rights in the question is
intended.

It is evident that this message is directed entirely to the
strengthening and building up of the Union party of the South, and has
been based quite as much on their demands and on a knowledge of their
needs, as on any Northern pressure. And it will have a sure effect. It
will bring to life, if realized, those seeds of counter-revolution which
so abundantly exist in the South. The growth may be slow, but it will be
certain. So long as the certainty exists that compensation _may_ be
obtained, there will be a party who will long for it; and where there is
a will there is a way. The executive has finally