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THE EMANCIPATION SCHEME.
“This is about a sensible and practical an idea as Mr. Burritt and his confreres are in the habit of originating. The suggestion to ‘share’ with the South the expense of purchasing Southern property, tends to a system of doing business which our Northern brethren would scarcely apply to their own business relations. If a Southerner were to propose to go halves with the New York Tribune for the extinction of that paper, he would be laughed as a fool for spending money so uselessly; while on the other hand, the motto of the Tribune, ‘Property is robbery,’ would scarcely prevent the public from thinking its owners madmen for allowing their property to go at half value. Then, again, is half price ‘the principle of a fair and honorable compensation’ for Southern property? We don’t think the cobblers of Massachusetts, or the clockmakers of Connecticut, do business on such principles of ‘fair and honorable compensation.’ If they agree to take half the price of their property, they will be sure to ask double what it is worth, and then haggle for three-fourths.”
We quote the above remarks from the Washington States. We published the call of Mr. Burritt and others for an Emancipation Convention last week, and with great pleasure. The Convention must accomplish some good in discussing the whole question of Emancipation. We can but notice, however, the spirit with which the entire Southern press meets this proposition to compensate the slave-owners for the loss of their slaves. The article from the States is a sample of it. The South disdains to listen to any proposal to emancipate their chattels, with perhaps the exception of Missouri and Delaware. It has no desire to get rid of the institution. And we think, while the discussion of Emancipation in the proposed Convention will result in good, that the work which must done by the friends of the salve is first to forcibly restrict Slavery to its present boundaries; and the next, to convince the South either of the wickedness or unprofitableness of Slavery. Before the slave States will consent to emancipation, they must be convinced that such a consummation is desirable. This is the labor waiting to be done.