The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAIIAMI LINCOLN. 229
s(rvice or labor in the District of.Colnmbia," has tthis day been approved
1and signed.
I have never doubted the constitutional authority of Congress to abolish slavery in this District; and I have ever desired to see the national
capital freed from the institution in some satisfactory way. Ience there
has never been in my mind any question upon the subject except the one
of expediency, arising in view of all the circumstances. If there be matters within and about this act which might liave taken a curse or shape
more satisfactory to my judgment, I do not attempt to specify tihem. I
am gratified that the two principles of comnpensation and colonization are
both recognized and practically applied in the:act.
In the matter of compensationl, it is provided that claims may be )resented witlin ninety days from the passage of the act, " but not thereafter; " and there is no saving for minors, f;mmines coreirt, ilisu:nc, or absent
persons. I presuine this is an omission by mere oversight, and I recommend that it be supplied by an amendatory or supplemental act.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
April 16, 1862.
On the 6th of March, the President sent to Congress
the following message on the subject of aiding sucl}
slaveholding States as might take measures to emancipate
their slaves:
WASMNGTON, Malrch 6, 1S62.
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 Sta:tes, in order to co-operate with any State
which may adopt gradual albolition of slavery, give to suchl State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compiensate it for
the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system.
If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is an end of it. But if it does
command such approval, I deem it of importance tlhat the States and
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 Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most important meanis of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing rebellion entertain the llope that this Government will
ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of
the disaffected region, and that all the slave States nortl of such lpart
will then say, "The Union for which we have struggled being already
gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section." To deprive