from the fact, now become history, that the leaders of the Southern Rebellion have offered to abolish Slavery among them as a condition to foreign intervention in favor of their Independence as a Nation. "If they can give up Slavery to destroy the Union, we can surely ask our people to consider the question of Emancipation to save the Union. "With great respect, your obedient servants, "JOHN W. NOELL, SAMUEL L. CASEY, GEORGE P. FISHER, A. J. CLEMENTS, WILLIAM G. BROWN, W. T. WILLEY.” ted. Not a day would be lost. Aside from public considerations, which you suppose to be involved in the proposition, and which no Patriot, I agree, should disregard at present, my own personal interest would prompt favorable and immediate action. The Rep "But having said this, it is proper that I say something more. resentative is the servant and not the master of the People. He has no authority to bind them to any course of action, or even to indicate what they will, or will not, do when the subject is exclusively theirs and not his. "I shall take occasion, I hope honestly, to give my views of existing troubles and impending dangers, and shall leave the rest to them, disposed, as I am, rather to trust their judgment upon the case stated than my own, and at the same time most cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision. "For you, personally, Mr. President, I think I can pledge the kindest considerations of the people of Missouri, and I shall not hesitate to express the belief that your recommendation will be considered by them in the same spirit of kindness manifested by you in its presentation to us, and that their decision will be such as is demanded by their interests, their honor, and their duty to the whole Country.' "I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, "To his Excellency. A. LINCOLN, PRESIDENT." "J. B. HENDERSON. CHAPTER XVIII. FREEDOM PROCLAIMED TO ALL PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEAL TO COLORED FREEMEN- 66 WHILE HILE mentally revolving the question of Emancipation-now, evidently "coming to a head,"-no inconsiderable portion of Mr. Lincoln's thoughts centered upon, and his perplexities grew out of, his assumption that the "physical difference" between the Black and White the African and Caucasian— races, precluded the idea of their living together in the one land as Free men and equals. In his speeches during the great Lincoln-Douglas debate we have seen this idea frequently advanced, and so, in his later public utterances as President. As in his appeal to the Congressional delegations from the Border-States* on the 12th of July, 1862, he had held out to them the hope that "the Freed people will not be so reluctant to go" to his projected colony in South America, when their "numbers shall be large enough to be company and encouragement for one another," so, at a later date-on the 14th of August following-he appealed to the Colored Free men themselves to help him found a proposed Negro colony in New Granada, and thus aid in the solution of this part of the knotty problem, by the disenthrallment of the new race from its unhappy environments here. The substance of the President's interesting address, at the White House, to the delegation of Colored men, for whom he had sent, was thus reported at the time: "Having all been seated, the President, after a few pre`liminary observations, informed them that a sum of money had been appropriated by Congress, and placed at his disposition, for the purpose of aiding the colonization in some country of the people, or a portion of them, of African descent, thereby making it his duty, as it had for a long time been his inclination, to favor that cause; and why, he asked, should the people of your race be colonized, and where? "Why should they leave this Country? This is perhaps the first question for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss; but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think. Your race suffers very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason, at least, why we should be separated. You here are Freemen, I suppose? * Page 403. "A VOICE-Yes, Sir. "THE PRESIDENT-Perhaps you have long been free, or all your lives. Your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people. But even when you cease to be Slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the White race. You are cut off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoys. The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free; but on this broad continent not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Go where you are treated the best, and the ban is still upon you. I do not propose to discuss this, but to present it as a fact, with which we have to deal. I cannot alter it if I would. It is a fact about which we all think and feel alike, I and you. We look to our condition. "Owing to the existence of the two races on this conti nent, I need not recount to you the effects upon White men, growing out of the institution of Slavery. I believe in its general evil effects on the White race. See our present condition-the Country engaged in War! our white men cutting one another's throats-none knowing how far it will extend-and then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be War, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I repeat, without the institution of Slavery, and the Colored race as a basis, the War could not have an existence. It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated. "I know that there are Free men among you who, even if they could better their condition, are not as much inclined to go out of the Country as those who, being Slaves, could obtain their Freedom on this condition. I suppose one of the principal difficulties in the way of colonization is that the free colored man cannot see that his comfort would be advanced by it. You may believe that you can live in Washington, or elsewhere in the United States, the remainder of your life; perhaps more so than you can in any foreign country, and hence you may come to the conclu sion that you have nothing to do with the idea of going to a foreign country. "This is, (I speak in no unkind sense) an extremely selfish view of the case. But you ought to do something to help those who are not so fortunate as yourselves. There is an unwillingness on the part of our People, harsh as it may be, for you free Colored people to remain with us. Now if you could give a start to the White people you would open a wide door for many to be made free. If we deal with those who are not free at the beginning, and whose intellects are clouded by Slavery, we have very poor material to start with. "If intelligent Colored men, such as are before me, would move in this matter, much might be accomplished. It is exceedingly important that we have men at the beginning capable of thinking as White men, and not those who have been systematically oppressed. There is much to encourage you. 66 For the sake of your race you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the White people. It is a cheering thought throughout life, that something can be done to ameliorate the condition of those who have been subject to the hard usages of the World. It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. "In the American Revolutionary War, sacrifices were made by men engaged in it, but they were cheered by the future. General Washington himself endured greater physical hardships than if he had remained a British subject, yet he was a happy man, because he was engaged in benefiting his race, in doing something for the children of his neighbors, having none of his own. "The Colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time. In a certain sense it is a success. The old President of Liberia, Roberts, has just been with me the first time I ever saw him. He says they have, within the bounds of that Colony, between three and four hundred thousand people, or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode |