Valley Spirit

The President today transmitted to Congress the following message:

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid to be used by such State in its discretion to compensate for the inconveniences, both 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 the end, but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the State 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 Federable [sic] Government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave 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, substantially ends the rebellion, and the 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, shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed Confederacy. I say initiation because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all.

In the more financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables and treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the 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 these.

In the annual message of last December, I thought fit to say, the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed. I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continued to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue, and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it.

Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle must and will come--the proposition now made is an offer only. I hope it may be esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons and property in it in the present aspect 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 soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.

(Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In another column of our paper will be found an important special Message sent into Congress by President LINCOLN.

The idea seems to have taken a tenacious hold of the minds of the President and his party that this rebellion cannot be put down unless the freedom of the slave is proclaimed in some manner or form.

If the president has hit upon the right plan, which is by no means a new one, we feel no disposition to oppose it factiously on his account. We feel as anxious as anybody living to get rid of the everlasting nigger, and if the President's recommendation will effect that, to him be all mundane honor and glory.

All the slave States have ever contended for was to be let alone, and permitted to manage their domestic institutions in their own way. One good feature about the Message is that the President expressly disclaims any right to interfere with the "peculiar institution;" thus crushing out the most important dogma in the Abolition creed, that "the General Government has the right to interfere with slavery in the States."

On this point the President is explicit and we believe honest. He says "the General Government sets up no claim of a right, by Federal authority, to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested."

Mr. BUCHANAN in his last annual Message to Congress said--"How easy would it be for the American people to settle the slavery question forever, and to restore peace and harmony to this distracted country." We appear to be approximating to a better understanding all round on this "vexed question," and as a result of this proper perception of right and wrong, may we not hope soon to see it "settled forever" and "peace and harmony" reign where now all is ruin, desolation and blood-shed--the legitimate fruits of slavery agitation.

If Mr. LINCOLN cannot conciliate his party, or reconcile them in any other way, to a cessation of hostility towards the South, than through the abolition of slavery, we certainly like his plan of buying the negroes much better than that of killing the white race to free the black.

As to the expenditure of money required to carry out this proposition we will not stop to count the cost. Who would not rather see the money of the Government laid out in buying negroes than purchasing salt-petre for the destruction of the white man.

What is to become of the negro after the Government has purchased him Mr. LINCOLN has not told us. This is the most momentous question to be decided, and should have received the serious and kindly consideration of the President in his Message. If it is intended to emancipate the negro, and place him on an equality with the white man, we can tell Mr. LINCOLN in advance that his scheme is a failure. It is a law of nature, which he cannot change by any ukase he may issue, that two antagonistic races cannot exist side by side without one holding the other in subjection. It must then become a struggle between the white man and the black man for supremacy. Mr. LINCOLN has very compassionately shut his eyes from a view of this picture, and we too have no desire to contemplate the horrors of that struggle.

We do not wish to be understood as condemning Mr. LINCOLN's plan. He strongly recommends it "as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation," and as an imperative necessity, to get rid of the everlasting nigger, we accept it "for better or worse."

An Encampment of this branch of the Order of Odd Fellows was established in this place in July last. It is a re-organization of the old "Olive Branch Encampment" that existed here a few years ago. Since it re-opened in July it has flourished beyond all expectations and may now be regarded as established on a permanent foundation. It already numbers between thirty and forty members and its financial affairs are in a most gratifying condition. Since the dissolution of all our Beneficial Societies we are glad to announce the re-establishment of this in our midst. At a meeting of this "Encampment" on Monday night last the following named gentlemen were elected officers of the association: C. P.--A. J. White; H. P.--Jacob Spangler; W.W.--Edward G. Etter; J. W.--Frank Henderson; Scribe--W. H. Boyle; Treasurer--Benj. F. Nead. The meetings of the Encampment are held in the Hall of Columbus Lodge on the Second and Fourth Monday evenings of each month.