while, on the other
hand, the only persons who can object to them are those who hold that
slavery is a good thing in itself, never to be disturbed. It is, in
short, all that the rational friends of progress can at present
desire--an official recognition of the great truth that slavery ought to
be abolished, but in such a manner as to cause the least possible
trouble.

It is amusing to observe the bewilderment of the pro-slavery Northern
Democratic press, which has so earnestly claimed the Executive as
'conservative,' and on which this message has fallen like a
thunder-clap. They have, of course, at once cried out that, should it
receive the sanction of Congress, it would still amount to nothing,
because no legislature of a slave State will accept it; an argument as
ridiculous as it is trivial. That the South would, for the present,
treat the proposal with scorn, is likely enough. But the edge of the
wedge has been introduced, and emancipation has been at least
_officially_ recognized as desirable. While such a possible means of
securing property exists, there will always be a strong party _forming_
in the South, whether they attain to a majority or not, and this party
will be the germ of disaster to the secessionists. There are men enough,
even in South Carolina, who would gladly be paid for their slaves, and
these men, while maintaining secession views in full bluster, would
readily enough find some indirect means of realizing money on their
chattels. It may work gradually--but it _will_ work. As disaster and
poverty increase in the South, there will increase with them the number
of those who will see no insult or injury in the proposition to buy from
them property which is becoming, with every year, more and more
uncertain in its tenure.

Let it be remembered that this message was based on the most positive
knowledge held by the Executive of the desires of the Union men in the
South, and of their strength. The reader who will reflect for a moment
can not fail to perceive that, unless it had such a foundation, the
views advanced in it would have been reckless and inexplicable indeed.
It was precisely on this basis, and in this manner, that the
CONTINENTAL, in previous numbers, and before it the New York
KNICKERBOCKER Magazine, urged the revival of the old WEBSTER theory of
gradual remunerated emancipation, declaring that the strength of the
Union party in the South was such as to warrant the experiment.[O] We
have a