I estimate the area of this district as about 17,175 square miles, an extent of territory exceeding the aggregate of the following States: Massachusetts, 7,800 square miles. Connecticut, 4,674 square miles. Rhode Island, l,306 square miles. ------ 13,180 square miles. Yet it is not many months since even this Tennessee region, it was generally feared, would be false to the Union, on account of its attachment to slavery. The reader who has studied the facts which I have cited, indicating the existence of a powerful Union party at the South (and the facts are few and weak compared to the vast mass which exist, and which are known to government), may judge for himself whether that party is Union _in spite of pro-slavery principles_, as so many would have us believe. Let him see where these Union men are found, where they have come forth with the greatest enthusiasm, and _then_ say that he believes they are friends to slavery. Let him bear in mind the hundreds of thousands of acres, the vast tracts, equal in extent to whole Northern States, in the South, which are unfitted for slave labor, and reflect whether the inhabitants of these cool, temperate regions are not as conscious of their inadaptability to slave labor as he is himself; and whether _they_ are so much attached to the institution which fosters the Satanic pride, panders to the passions, and corrupts the children of the planter of the low country. Since writing the above, the long-expected declaration of President LINCOLN has appeared in favor of adopting a plan which may lead to the gradual abolishment of slavery. He proposes that the United States shall cooeperate with such slave States as may desire Emancipation, by giving such pecuniary aid as may compensate for any losses incurred. No interference with State rights or claims to rights in the question is intended. It is evident that this message is directed entirely to the strengthening and building up of the Union party of the South, and has been based quite as much on their demands and on a knowledge of their needs, as on any Northern pressure. And it will have a sure effect. It will bring to life, if realized, those seeds of counter-revolution which so abundantly exist in the South. The growth may be slow, but it will be certain. So long as the certainty exists that compensation _may_ be obtained, there will be a party who will long for it; and where there is a will there is a way. The executive has finally _officially_ recognized the truth of the theory of Emancipation, and thereby entitled itself to the honor of having taken the greatest forward step in the glorious path of Freedom ever made even in our history. * * * * * THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS. NO. I. In addressing you for the first time, you will perhaps expect me to give some account of myself and my ancestry, as did the illustrious _Spectator_.