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April 1862. DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 631 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] What they need most are school-books——primers, spelling-books and easy readers. If a box of such books could be forwarded to the chaplain of the Massachusetts 24th, I am confident they would be used as long as his regiment may remain on the island, and then would be passed to some other hands, which will make an equally good use of them. Let those who wishes something to do, heed the suggestion. [[line]] THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE. [[short line]] WASHINGTON. March 6.——The President to-day transmitted to Congress the following: Fellow citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your Honorable body, which shall be substantially as follows: "Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual establishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid to be used by such State in its discretion to compensate for inconveniences, public and private, produced by such a change of system." If the proposition contained in the resolution, does not meet the approval of congress, and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and the people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The United States Government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient measures of self preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertained hopes that this Government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all States north of such parts will then say: "The Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section." To deprive them of this hope, substantally ends rebellion, and an initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it. As to all States initiating it, the point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that, while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern States shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that the former will in no event ever join the latter in their proposed Confederacy. I say "initiation" because, in my judgement, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In a mere financial, or pecuniary view, any Member of Congress, with census tables and Treasury reports; can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of the war will purchase, at a fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such proposition, on the part of the General Government, sets up no claim of the right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them. In my annual message last December, I thought fit to say the "Union must be preserved, and hence, all indispensible means must be employed." I said this not hastily but deliberately. War has been and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. Practical acknowlegement of National authority would render was unnecessary and it would at once cease. If however, resistance continues, war must also continue and it is impossible to foresee all incidents which may attend; and all the ruin which may follow such a war may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle, which must and will come. The proposition now made though is an offer only and I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to states, and private persons concerned than are institutions and property in it in the [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] present state of affairs. While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would sooner lead to important results. In full view of my great responsibility to God and country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject. (signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN. [[line]] From the Birmingham Daily Post. THE LADIES NEGROES FRIEND SOCIETY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. [[short line]] The quarterly meeting of the "Ladies' Negroes' Friend Society" was held on Thursday last, in the Priory Room, Upper Priory. The number of ladies present was greater than at any previous time, except on the occasion of the annual meeting. The minutes of the November meeting required some reference, after which letters and various subjects of interest had been prepared for introduction, but the Cuban slave trade and American affairs were felt to be of such immense importance that the attention of the meeting was chiefly called to their consideration. A letter just received from the Secretary of the London Society was read to the meeting, stating the urgent need for continual agitation on the subject of the Cuban slave trade; also extracts from the last number of the African Times, the organ of the African Aid Society in which it is affirmed "That the Spanish Government could prevent it, is past all question. Spain has been permitted by God to re-acquire the amount of national strength which would enable her to defy the discontent of baffled slave traders and purchasers, and boldly and directly put an end to what so dishonors her now amoung nations, as well as criminates her in the sight of God. Our duty as Christians is, therefore, not only toward the poor victims, but also towards those who allow the perpetration of the wrong. For the sake of the Spanish authorities themselves, we are bound to use every available legitimate means to induce them to cleanse their hands from this iniquity." "The African slave trade is only now maintained by the demand in Cuba. But why is there a demand in Cuba? We should be guilty in hesitating to give the truth in reply. That demand is caused by the demand for sugar in England. In legislating wisely for English wants, we legislated without reference to a foreign iniquity. That iniquity took advantage of our legislation, and thrust itself forward for our supply. Cuban sugar had been virtually excluded from the markets of Great Britain, but with the change in our fiscal policy, that, as well as all other, could be brought in. The colored population in Cuba, that had previously sufficed to produce all that could be profitably disposed of, sufficed no longer. The eyes of greedy planters turned towards Africa. The wretches who carry on the slave trade were not slow to perceive their advantage. The slave trade had a great revival, in order that the Cuban planter might avail himself of the profitable market opened in England. The slave importation into Cuba, and the sugar exportation out of Cuba for England, simultaneously increased." After other documents had been presented to the meeting, the following resolution was passed:——"That in view of the miseries still inflicted on the African race, by the continuance of the Cuban slave trade, and of the aid which it derives from the commercial support of Great Britain, which consumes so largely the produce of Cuba, this meeting concludes it highly desirable that ministers of all denominations should be invited to use their influence to impress on their churches, and through them on the nation, the duty of arresting, if possible, so enormous a crime." "All our country has been indignant at the attempt to take from under the protection of our laws four defenders of slavery. Where is the consistency and justice of allowing Spain to capture thousands of Africans whose protection [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] has been purchased by our country's money, and whose exemption from such terrible outrage has been guaranteed again and again by solemn treaties between the two Governments? "We delight in the universal compassion evinced for sufferers who were smothered in the depths of the Hartley Colliery: we should hail with devout feelings of thankfulness such a manifestation of sympathy for the multitudes of men, women, and children who are fairly stifled in the hold of the slave-ship." It was stated to the meeting that American affairs are ably treated of in the Frederick Douglass's Monthly Journal, published at Rochester, in the State of New York, and much interesting information given about the negroes and contrabands. In an article, "What shall be done with the Negroes if emancipated," it is said, "but for the motive which slavery supplies not a single State, from Maryland to Texas, would desire to be rid of its black people." . . . "Efforts at expulsion have been made in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, and all have failed, just because the black man as a freeman is a useful member of society. To drive him away, and thus deprive the South of his labor, would be as absurd and monstrous as for a man to cut off his right arm the better to enable himself to work." [[line]] [[image: manicule]] A late Southern paper, the Courier, published at Bowling Green, recently the headquarters of the rebel army in Kentucky, insolently said:—— "When we have independence, and shall grant free trade to our former oppressors, then will come the proud hour of the final and complete triumph of the South. Look at the map of America, and see how we tear from the vitals of the old Union nearly all that is valuable. We then will be seated on the throne of the new continent——the true seat of all constitutional government and republican liberty——holding in servile dependence out former oppressors! We will hold their very means of living in our hands. Lower our tariff, and they will sink——raise it, and they will lick the dust beneath our feet. Then we will hold them in bonds to keep the peace, to catch our slaves, to bend before our word, the dependents and feudatories of the TRUE MEN of America. At every session they will fill the lobbies of our Congress with committees to beg for mercy in the adjustment of the details of our tariff——begging for the bread which we will give to them, because we love mankind(!) At each returning session of our Congress, you will see them fawning around the throne they will acknowledge, returning to us our fugitives, and in every way endeavoring to propitiate the people they so insolently attempted, in the old Union, to enslave——the last instance in history of the "members rebelling against the belly." [[line]] General Shields. Acting Major General Shields, the hero of Winchester, is a native of Tyrone county Ireland, where he was born in 1810. He came to this country at the age of sixteen, and settled at Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1832. He was soon elected to the Legislature, and in 1839 made State Auditor. His legal attainments were more than respectable. In 1845 he was appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, and removed to Washington. On the breaking out of the Mexican War, he was appointed Brigadier General of volunteers, and distinguished himself at the siege of Vera Cruz and Cerro Goro. In the latter battle he was shot through the body with a copper ball, and as supposed, mortally wounded. He however, recovered perfect health. In August 1848, he was brevetted Major General of U. S. volunteers. From 1849 to 1855 he was Senator from Illinois, and in 1858 he was returned to the same office from Minnesota.——Gen. Shields having drawn the short term, he had to vacate his seat in 1859, and not securing a re-election, he went further west, into California. From his retirement he was again brought out by the present war, having been appointed by Congress a Brigadier General, with a commission dating from August 19, 1861. [[/column 3]]
