March 14, 1862
President Lincoln has urged that the United States offer “pecuniary cooperation” in case any slave state should adopt a gradual emancipation of slavery, including compensation “for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.” The Liberator comments disparagingly of the message, and its style of writing. “…bungingly expressed, quite discreditable in that particular as official documents”. It abhors the ideal of gradual emancipation… “the President is at war with common sense, sound reason, the teachings of history….” The President “has now THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT, POWER AND OPPORTUNITY to “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the in habitants thereof’; and neither the President nor Congress must be allowed to evade this solemn duty by any dodge of this kind….”
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