PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



731 



Taking the nation in the aggregate, and we find its 

 population and ratio of increase, for the several decen- 

 nial periods, to be as follows : 



1790. 8,929.827 



1800. 5,805,937 85.02 per cent ratio of increase. 



1810. 7,239,814 86.45 



1820. 9,638,181 83.18 " 



1830. 12,866,020 33.49 " 



1840. 17,069,453 32.67 " 



1850. 28,191,876 85,87 " 



1860. 81,443,790 85.58 " 



This shows an average decennial increase of 34.60 

 per cent, in population through the seventy years, from 

 our first to our last census yet taken. It is seen that the 

 ratio of increase, at no one of these two periods, is 

 either two per cent, below or two per cent, above the 

 average ; thus showing how inflexible, and consequently 

 how reliable, the law of increase in our case is. Assum- 

 ing that it will continue, it gives the following results : 



1870... 42,323.341 



1880 56,967,216 



1890 76,677,872 



1900 103,208,41 5 



1910 138,918,526 



1920 186.984,335 



1930 251,630,914 



These figures show that our country may be as pop- 

 ulous as Europe now is at some point between 1920 and 

 1930 say about 1925 our territory, at seventy-three 

 and a third persons to the square mile, being of capa- 

 city to contain 217,186,000 



And we will reach this, too, if we do not ourselves 

 relinquish the chance, by the folly and evils of disunion, 

 or by long and exhausting wars springing from the only 

 great element of national discord among us. While it 

 cannot be foreseen exactly how much one huge exam- 

 ple of secession, breeding lesser ones indefinitely, would 

 retard population, civilization, and prosperity, no one 

 can doubt that the extent of it would be very great and 

 injurious. 



The proposed emancipation would shorten the war, 

 perpetuate peace, insure this increase of population, 

 and proportionately the wealth of the country. W T ith 

 these, we should pay all the emancipation would cost, 

 together with our other debt, easier than we should pay 

 our other debt without it. If we had allowed our 

 old national debt to run at six per cent, per annum, 

 simple interest, from the end of our Revolutionary 

 struggle until to-day, without paying anything on 

 either principal or interest, each man of us would owe 

 less upon that debt now than each man owed upon it 

 then ; and this because our increase of men, through 

 the whole period, has been greater than six per cent. ; 

 has run faster than the interest upon the debt. Thus, 

 time alone relieves a debtor nation, so long as its pop- 

 ulation increases faster than unpaid interest accumu- 

 lates on its debt. 



This fact would be no excuse for delaying payment of 

 what is justly due ; but it shows the great importance 

 of time in this connection the great advantage of a 

 policy by which we shall not have to pay until we num- 

 ber a hundred millions, what, by a different policy, we 

 would have to pay now, when we number but thirty- 

 one millions. In "a word, it shows that a dollar will 

 be much harder to pay for the war than will be a dol- 

 lar for the emancipation on the proposed plan. And 

 then the latter will cost no blood, no precious life. It 

 will be a saving of both. 



As to the second article, I think it would be imprac- 

 ticable to return to bondage. the class of persons there- 

 in contemplated. Some of them, doubtless, in the 

 property sense, belong to loyal owners; and hence 

 provision is made in this article for compensating such. 



The third article relates to the future of the freed 

 people. It does not oblige, but merely authorizes 

 Congress to aid in colonizing such as may consent. 

 This ought not to be regarded as objectionable on the 

 one hand or on the other, in so much as it comes to 

 nothing unless by the mutual consent of the people to 

 be deported, and the American voters, through their 

 representatives in Congress. 



I cannot make it better known than it already it that 

 I strongly favor colonization. And yet I wish to say 

 there is an objection urged against free colored persons 

 remaining in the country which is lurgc-ly imaginary, 

 if not sometimes malicious. 



It is insisted that their presence would injure and 

 displace white labor and white laborers. If there ever 

 could be a proper time for mere catch arguments, that 

 time surely is not now. In times like the preset/ 

 should utter nothing for which they would not willingly 

 be responsible through time and in eternity. Is it true, 

 then, that colored people can displace any more white 

 labor by being free than by remaining slaves ? If they 

 stay in their old places they jostle no white laborers ; 

 if they leave their old places they leave them open to 

 white laborers. Logically, there is neither more nor 

 less of it. Emancipation even without deportation, 

 would probably enhance the wages of white labor, and, 

 very surely, would not reduce them. Thus the cus- 

 tomary amount of labor would still have to be perform- 

 ed the freed people would surely not do more than 

 their old proportion of it, and very probably for a time 

 would do less, leaving an increased part to white la- 

 borers, bringing their labor into greater demand, and 

 consequently enhancing the wages of it. With de- 

 portation, even to a limited extent, enhanced wages 

 to white labor is mathematically certain. Labor is 

 like any other commodity in the market increase the 

 demand for it and you increase the price of it. Reduce 

 the supply of black labor, by colonizing the black la- 

 borer out of the country, and by precisely so much you 

 increase the demand for and wages of white labor. 



But it is dreaded that the freed people will swarm 

 forth and cover the whole land ! Are they not already 

 in the land ? Will liberation make them any more nu- 

 merous ? Equally distributed among the whites of the 

 whole country, and there would be but one colored to 

 seven whites. Could the one, in any way, greatly dis- 

 turb the seven? There are many communities now 

 having more than one free colored person to seven 

 whites ; and this, without any apparent consciousness 

 of evil from it. The District of Columbia and the States 

 of Maryland and Delaware are all in this condition. 

 The District has more than one free colored to six 

 whites ; and yet, in its frequent petitions to Congress, 

 I believe it has never presented the presence of free 

 colored persons as one of its grievances. But why 

 should emancipation South send the freed people North ? 

 People of any color seldom run unless there be some- 

 thing to run from. Heretofore colored people to some 

 extent have fled North from bondage; aud now, per- 

 haps, from bondage and destitution. But if gradual 

 emancipation ana deportation be adopted they will 

 have neither to flee from. Their old masters will give 

 them wages at least until new laborers can be procured, 

 and the freed men in turn will gladly give their labor 

 for the wages till new homes can be found for them in 

 congenial climes and with people of their own blood 

 and race. This proposition can be trusted on the mu- 

 tual interests involved. And in any event, cannot the 

 North decide for itself whether to receive them ? 



Again, as practice proves more than theory, in any 

 case, has there been any irruption of colored people 

 northward because of the abolishment of slavery in this 

 District last spring? 



What I have said of the proportion of free colored 

 persons to the whites in the District is from the census 

 of 1860, having no reference to persons called contra- 

 bands, nor to those made free by the act of Congress 

 abolishing slavery here. 



The plan consisting of these articles is recommend 

 not but that a restoration of national authority would 

 be accepted without its adoption. 



Nor will the war, nor proceedings under the procla- 

 mation of September 22, 186-2, be stayed because of the 

 recommendation of this plan. Its timely adoption, I 

 doubt not, would bring restoration, and thereby stay 



And, notwithstanding this plan, the recommendation 

 that Congress provide by law for compensating any 

 State which may adopt emancipation before this plan 



