PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 





formation in anticipation of a more elaborate report, 

 which will in due time be furnished, embracing some 

 valuable tests in chemical science now in progress in 

 the laboratory. 



The creation of this department was for the more 

 immediate benefit of a large class of our most valuable 

 citizens ; and I trust that the liberal basis upon which 

 it has been organized will not only meet your appro- 

 bation, but that it will realize, at no distant" day, all the 

 fondest anticipations of its most sanguine friends, and 

 become the fruitful source of advantage to all our people. 

 On the 22d day of September last a proclamation 

 was issued by the Executive, a copy of which is here- 

 with submitted. 



In accordance with the purpose expressed in the 

 second paragraph of that paper, I now respectfully 

 recall your attention to what may be called " compen- 

 sated emancipation." 



A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its 

 people, and its laws. The territory is the only part 

 which is of certain durability. " One generation pass- 

 eth away and another generation cometh, but the 

 earth abideth forever." ft is of the first importance 

 to duly consider and estimate this ever enduring part. 

 That portion of the earth's surface which is ownea and 

 inhabited by the people of the United States is well 

 adapted to the home of one national family ; and it is 

 not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent and 

 its variety ot climate and productions are of advantage 

 in this age for one people, whatever they might have 

 been in former ages. Steams, telegraphs, and intelli- 

 gence have brougnt these to be an advantageous com- 

 bination for one united people. 



In the Inaugural Address ! briefly pointed out the 

 total inadequacy of disunion as a remedy for the dif- 

 ferences between the people of the two sections. I did 

 so in language which I cannot improve, and which, 

 therefore, I beg to repeat : 



"One section of our country believes slavery is 

 right, and ought to be extended, while the other be- 

 lieves it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This 

 is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive slave 

 clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppres- 

 sion of the foreign slave trade, are each as well en- 

 forced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a communi- 

 ty where the moral sense of the people imperfectly 

 supports the law itself. The great body of the people 

 abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a 

 few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be per- 

 fectly cured ; and it would be worse in both cases 

 after the separation of the sections than before. The 

 foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, 

 would be ultimately revived without restriction in one 

 section ; while fugitive slaves, now only partially sur- 

 rendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. 

 " Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We 

 cannot'remove our respective sections from each other, 

 nor build an impassable wall between them. A hus- 

 band and wife mav be divorced and go out of the 

 presence and beyond the reach of each other ; but the 

 different parts of our country cannot do this. They 

 cannot but remain face to face ; and intercourse, either 

 amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is 

 it possible, then, to make that intercourse more ad- 

 vantageous or more satisfactory after separation than 

 before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends 

 can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully en- 

 forced between aliens than laws can among friends? 

 Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and 

 when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on 

 the other, you cease fighting, the identical old ques- 

 tions, as to" terms of intercourse, are again upon you." 

 There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a 

 national boundary upon which to divide. Trace 

 through, from east to west, upon the line between the 

 free and slave country, and we shall find a little more 

 than one third of its length are rivers, easy to be cross- 

 ed, and populated, or soon to be populated, thickly 

 upon both sides ; while nearly all its remaining length 

 are merely survevors' lines, over which people may 

 walk back and forth without any consciousness of their 



presence. No part of this line can be made any more 



difficult to pass by writing it down 01 



ment, as a national boundary. 



if it comes, gives up, on the part of the ^ 



tion, the fugitive slave clause, along with all other 



constitutional obligations upon the section seceded 



from, while I should expect no treaty stipulation would 



ever be made to take its place. 



But there is another difficultv. The great interior 

 region, bounded east by the Alfeghanies, north by the 

 British dominions, west by the Rockv Mountains, and 

 south by the line along which the culture of corn and 

 cotton meets, and which includes part of Virginia, 

 part of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, 

 Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota, Nebraska, 

 and part of Colorado, alreadv has above ten millions 

 of people, and will have fifty millions within fifty 

 years if not prevented by any political folly or mistake. 

 It contains more than one third of the country owned 

 by the United States certainly more than one million 

 of square miles. Once half as populous as Massachu- 

 setts already is it would have more than seventy-fire 

 millions of people. A glance at the map shows that, 

 territorially speaking, it is the great body of the Repub- 

 lic. The other parts are but marginal b'orders to it, the 

 magnificent region sipping west from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains to the Pacific being the deepest and also the richest 

 in undeveloped resources. In the production of pro- 

 visions, grains, grasses, and all which proceed from 

 them, this great interior region is naturallv one of the 

 most important of the world. Ascertain from the 

 statistics the small proportion of the region which has 

 as vet been brought into cultivation, and also the large 

 and rapidly increasing amount of its products, and we 

 shall be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the pros- 

 pect presented. And yet this region has no seacoast, 

 touches no ocean anywhere. As part of one nation, its 

 people now find, and mav forever find, their way to 

 Europe by New York, to South America and Africa by 

 New Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco. But sep- 

 arate our common country into two nations, as design- 

 ed by the present rebellion, and everv man of this great 

 interior region is thereby cut off from some one or 

 more of these outlets, not perhaps by a physical bar- 

 rier, but by embarrassing and onerous tra'de regula- 

 tions. 



And this is true, wherever a dividing or boundary 

 line may be fixed. Place it between the now free and 

 slave country, or place it south of Kentucky or north 

 of Ohio, and still the truth remains that noce south of 

 it can trade to any port or place north of it, and none 

 north of it can trade to any port or place south of it, 

 except upon terms dictated by a Government fortiirn 

 to them. These outlets, east, west, and south, are 

 indispensable to the well-being of the people inhabit- 

 ing and to inhabit this vast interior region. Which 

 of the three may be the best is no proper question. 

 All are better than either, and all of right belong to 

 that people and to their successors forever. True, to 

 themselves, they will not ask where a line of separa- 

 tion shall be, but will vow rather that there shall be 

 no such line. Nor are the marginal regions less inter- 

 ested in these communications to and through them to 

 the great outside world. They too, and each of them, 

 must have access to this Egypt of the West, without 

 paying toll at the crossing of any national boundary. 



Our national strife springs not from our permanent 

 part ; not from the land we inhabit ; not from our 

 national homestead. There is no possible severing of 

 this, but would multiply and not mitigate evils among 

 us. In all its adaptations and aptitudes, it demands 

 union* and abhors separation. In fact it would ere 

 long force reunion, however much of blood and treas- 

 ure the separation might have cost. 



Our strife pertains to ourselves to the passing 



Generations of men; and it can without convulsion be 

 ushed forever with the passing of one generation. 

 In this view, I recommend the adoption of the fol- 

 lowing resolution and articles amendatory to the Con- 

 stitution of the United States : 



