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760     DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.     DECEMBER, 1862
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the preceding year, about $3,750,000, as compared with the fiscal year of 1860.

The deficiency in the department for the previous year, is $455,196,698.  The last fiscal year it was reduced to $211,281,457.  Favorable results are in fact owing to the cessation of mail service in insurrectionary States, and in part to the casual review of all expenditures in that department in the interest of economy.  The efficiency of the postal service, it is believed, has also been much improved.  The Post Master General also opened correspondence through the Department of State, with foreign governments, proposing a convention of representatives for the purpose of simplifying the rates of foreign postage to expedite the foreign mails.

This proposition, equally important to our adopted citizens and the commercial interests of our country, has been favorably entertained and agreed to by all the Governments from whom replies have been received.  I ask the attention of Congress to the suggestion of the Post Master General in his report respecting the further legislation required in his opinion for the benefit of the postal service.

The Secretary of the Interior reports as follows in regard to the Public Lands: They have ceased to be a source of revenue-From the 1st July 1861 to September 30, 1862, the entire cash receipts from the sale of lands were $137,477 26, a sum much less than the expense of our land system during the same period.  The Homestead law, which will take effect January 1st offers such inducements to settlers that sales for cash cannot be expected to an extent sufficient to meet the expense of the General Land Office, the cost of surveying and bringing the land into market.

The discrepancy between the sums stated as arising from the sales of public lands and the sum derived from the same source as reported in the Treasury Department, arises, as I understand, from the fact that the periods of time, though apparently were not really coincident from the beginning point.  The Treasury report, including a considerable sum now which had previously been reported from the interior sufficiently large to greatly overreach the sum derived from the three months now reported upon by the Interior, and not by the Treasury.

The Indian tribes upon our frontier have, during the past year, manifested a spirit of insubordination, and at several points have engaged in open hostility against the white settlements in their vicinity.

The tribes occupying the Indian country south of Kansas, renouncing their allegiance to the United States and entered into treaties with insurrectionists.  Those who remained loyal to the United States were driven from the country.  The Chief of the Cherokees has visited this city for the purpose of restoring former relations of the tribe with the United States.  He alleges that they were constrained by superior force to enter into treaties with the insurgents, and that the United States neglected to furnish the protection which their treaty stipulations required.

In the month of August last, the Sioux Indians in Minnesota, attacked the settlers in their vicinity with extreme ferocity, killing indiscriminately men, women and children.  This attack was wholly unexpected, and there, no means of defense had been provided.  It is estimated that not less than 800 persons were killed by the Indians, and a large amount of property was destroyed.

   How this outbreak was induced is not definitely known, and suspicions which may be unjust need not be stated. Information was received by the Indian Bureau, from different sources, about the time hostilities commenced, that a simultaneous attack was to be commenced upon the white settlements by all the tribes between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains.
   The State of Minnesota has suffered great injury from this Indian War. A large portion of her territory has been depopulated, and a severe loss has been sustained by the destruction of property. The people of that State manifest much anxiety for the removal of the tribes beyond the limits of the State, as a guaranty against further hostilities. The Commissioner of Indian affairs will furnish full details.
   I submit for your special consideration whether our Indian system shall not be remodelled Many wise and good men have been impressed with the belief that this can be profitably done
   I submit a statement of the proceedings of the Commissioners which shows the progress that has been made in the enterprise of construction of the Pacific Railroad, and this suggests an early completion of the road, and also the favorable action of Congress upon projects now before them for enlarging the capacities of the great canals of New York and Illinois, as being of vital and rapidly increasing importance to the whole nation, and especially to the vast interior region hereafter to be noticed at greater length.
   I propose having prepared and laid before you at an early day, some interesting and valuable statistical information on this subject. The military and commercial importance of enlarging the Illinois and Michigan canal, and improving the Illinois river, is presented in the report of Col. Webster to the Secretary Of War, and now transmitted to Congress. I respectfully ask attention to it.
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   To carry out the provisions of the act of Congress, of the 15th of May last, I have caused the department of agriculture of the United States to be organized. The Commissioner informs me that within a period of a few months, this department has established an extensive system of correspondence, and exchanges both at home and abroad, promises to effect highly beneficial results in the department of a correct knowledge of the recent improvements in agriculture; in the introduction of new products, and the collection of agricultural statistics of the different States, also that it will soon be prepared to distribute largely seeds, cereals, plants and cutting; and has already published and liberally diffused much valuable information in anticipation of a more elaborate report which will 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 approbation but that it will realize that no distant day all the fondest anticipations of its most sanguine friend, and become the most fruitful source of advantage to all our people.
   On the 22nd day of September last a proclamation was issued by the Executive, a copy of which is herewith submitted. In accordance with a purpose expressed in a paragraph of that order, I now respectfully call your attention to what may be called "Compensated 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 passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever." It is of the first importance to duly consider and estimate this our enduring part. That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United States, is well adapted to be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent and its variety of climate, and productions are of advantage in the age of our people, whatever they might have been in former ages. Steam and telegraphs, and intelligence have brought these to be an advantage in combination for one united people.
   In the inaugural address I briefly pointed out the total inadequacy of disunion as a remedy for the differences between the people of the two sections. I did so in language which I could not 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 believes 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 suppression of the African slave trade are each as well enforced, probably as a law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This I think cannot be perfectly 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 partly surrendered, would not be surrendered by the other. Physically speaking, we cannot remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may 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 advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can be among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always, and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the old identical questions as to terms are again upon you.
   There is no line straight or cooked 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 crossed, and soon to be populated thickly on both sides, while in nearly all its remaining length are merely surveyor's 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 on paper, or parchment, as a national boundary. The fact of separation, if it comes, gives up the obligations of enforcing 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 difficulty; the great interior region, bounded east by the Alleganies, north by the British domains, west by the Rocky mountains, and south by the line along which the culture of corn and cotton meets, and which includes a part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois,
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Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and the territories of Dacotah, Nebraska and part of Colorado, have about 10,000,000 of people, and will heve 50,000,000 within fifty years, if not prevented by any political folly or mistake. It contains more than one-third of the country owned by the revolted States -- certainly more than 1,000,000 square miles; one-half as populous as Massachusetts already is, would have more than 75,000,000 of people. A glance at the map shows that territorially speaking it is the great body of the Republic.--
The other parts are but marginal borders to it.--
The magnificent region sloping from the Rocky Mountains west of the Pacific, being the deepest and also the richest in undeveloped resources, in the production of provisions, grain and grasses, and all which proceed from them, this great interior region is naturally one of the most important in the world. Ascertain from the statistics the small portion of the region which has as yet been brought into cultivation, and also the large and rapidly increasing amount of its products, and we should be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect presented, and yet this region has no sea coast, touches no ocean anywhere. As part of one nation its people now find and may forever find their way to Europe by New York; to South America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco; but separate our common country into two tions as designed by the present rebellion, and every man in this great interior region is thereby cut off from some one or more of these outlets; not perhaps by a physical barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations, 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 none south of it can trade to any place or port 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 foreign to them.
   These outlets east, west and south are indispensible to the well being of the people inhabiting 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 outright[[?]] belong to that people and their successors forever. True to themselves they will not ask where the line of separation shall be, but now rather that there shall be no such line; nor are the marginal regions less interested in these communications to pass thro' 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 proceeds not from our permanent part, not from the land we inhabit, not from our National homestead. There is no possible severing of this, and would 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 treasure separation might have cost.
   Our strife pertains to ourselves, to the passing generations of men, and it cannot, without convulsion, be hushed forever with the passing of one generation. In this view, I recommended the adoption of the following resolutions and articles amendatory to the US Constitution:
   Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, the following articles proposed to the Legislatures, or Conventions of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of said Legislatures or Conventions, to be valid as part or parts of the said Constitution, viz:
   Article -- Every State where in slavery now exists, which shall abolish the same therein at any time or times before January 1st, 1900, shall receive compensation from the United States as follows to wit:
   The President of the United States shall deliver to every such State United States bonds, bearing interest at the rate of --- for each slave shown to have been there by the eighth census of the United States--said bonds to be delivered to such State by installments, or in one parcel, upon the completion of the abolishment according as the same shall have been gradual, or at one time, within such State, and interest shall begin to run upon any such bond only from the proper time of its delivery as aforesaid; and afterwards, any State having received bonds as aforesaid, and afterwards introducing or tolerating slavery therein, shall refund to the United States the bonds so received or the value thereof, and all interest paid thereon.
   Article -- All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of war at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall be forever free; but all owners of such who shall not have been disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is provided for States adopting the abolishment of slavery, but in such a way no slave shall be twice accounted for.
   Article -- Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for colonizing free colored
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