4

these pregnant words:

in time of war, I suppose I have a right to | President closed the conference with
take any measure which may best subdue
the enemy; nor do I urge objections of a
moral nature, in view of possible conse-
quences of insurrection and massacre at the
South. I view this matter as a practical
war measure, to be decided on according to
the advantages or disadvantages it may offer
to the suppression of the Rebellion."

The deputation responded, urging that an Emancipation policy would greatly strengthen us in Europe, and would justify us in appealing to the God of the oppressed and down-trodden for His blessing on our future efforts to crush the Rebellion. The President rejoined:

"I admit that Slavery is at the root of the

Rebellion, or at least its sine qua non. The
ambition of politicians may have instigated
them to act; but they would have been im
potent without Slavery as their instrument.
I will also concede that Emancipation would
help us in Europe, and convince them that
we are incited by something more than am-
bition. I grant, further, that it would help
somewhat at the North, though not so much,
I fear, as you and those you represent im-
agine. Still, some additional strength would
Still
be added in that way to the war; and then,
unquestionably, it would weaken the Rebels
by drawing off their laborers, which is of
great importance; but I am not so sure we
could do much with the Blacks. If we were
to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the

arms would be in the hands of the Rebels;
and, indeed, thus far, we have not had arms
enough to equip our White troops. I will
mention another thing, though it meet only
your scorn and contempt. There are 50,000
bayonets in the Union army from the Border

Slave States. It would be a serious matter if, in consequence of a proclamation such as you desire, they should go over to the Rebels. I do not think they all would-not so many, indeed, as a year ago, or as six months ago-not so many to-day as yesterday. Every day increases their Union feeling. They are also getting their pride enlisted, and want to beat the Rebels. Let me say one thing more: I think you should admit that we already have an important principle to rally and unite the people, in the fact that constitutional government is at stake. This is a fundamental idea, going down about as deep as any thing."

The deputation again developed and enforced their views; and the

"Do not misunderstand me because I
have mentioned these objections. They
indicate the difficulties that have thus far
prevented my action in some such way as
you desire. I have not decided against a
proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but
hold the matter under advisement. And I

can assure you that the subject is on my
mind, by day and by night, more than any
will, I will do. I trust that, in the freedom
other. Whatever shall appear to be God's
with which I have canvassed your views, I
have not in any respect injured your feel-
ings."

The deputation had scarcely re-
turned to Chicago and reported to
their constituents, when the great
body of the President's supporters
were electrified, while his opponents
in general were only still farther
alienated, by the unheralded appear-
ance of the following proclamation:
United States of America, and Commander-
"I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the
in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do
hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter,
as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted
constitutional relation between the United
for the object of practically restoring the
States and each of the States, and the
people thereof, in which States that rela-
tion is or may be suspended or disturbed.

meeting of Congress, to again recommend
"That it is my purpose, upon the next
the adoption of a practical measure tender-
rejection of all Slave States, so called, the
ing pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or
people whereof may not then be in rebel-
lion against the United States, and which
States may then have voluntarily adopted,
diate or gradual abolishment of Slavery
or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, imme-
within their respective limits; and that the
effort to colonize persons of African descent,
with their consent, upon this continent or
elsewhere, with the previously obtained
consent of the governments existing there,
will be continued.

the year of our Lord one thousand eight
"That, on the first day of January, in
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held
as slaves within any State, or designated
part of a State, the people whereof shall
then be in rebellion against the United
against
shall be then, thenceforward, and

forever free; and the Executive Govern
ment of the United States, including the

{ LINCOLN'S FIRST PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM.

253

military and naval authority thereof, will Rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto;

recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.

and no person engaged in the military or naval service of
the United States shall, under any pretense whatever,
assume to decide on the validity of the aim of any
person to the service or labor of any other person, or
surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain
of being dismissed from the service.'

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order
all persons engaged in the military and
naval service of the United States to ob-
serve, obey, and enforce, within their re-
spective spheres of service, the act and
sections above recited.

"And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States, who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the Rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective States and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set iny hand and caused the seal of the United

"That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled 'An Act to make ❘ States to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Washington,
this twenty-second day of Septem-
ber, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-
two, and of the independence
of the United States the eighty-
seventh.

""Be it enacted by the Senate und House of Repre- [L. S.] sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the Army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:

""SECTION 1. All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due; and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage.'

"Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled 'An Act to Suppress Insurrection, to Punish Treason and Rebellion, to Seize and Confiscate Property of Rebels,

and for other Purposes,' approved July 16, 1862; and which sections are in the words and figures following:

""SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves

of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion

against the Government of the United States, or who

shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping

from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of

the army; and all slaves captured from such persons, or

deserted by them and coming under the control of the Government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied

by Rebel forces and afterward occupied by forces of the

United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

"SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"By the President:

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

It has been alleged that the appearance of this document was hastened by confidential representations from our Embassadors at the Courts of Western Europe, that a recognition of the Confederacy was imminent, and could hardly be averted otherwise than by a policy of Emancipation. The then Attorney-General has been quoted as authority for this statement; but it is still generally regarded as apocryphal. It has been likewise asserted that the President had fully decided on resorting to this policy some weeks before the Proclamation appeared, and that he only withheld it till the military situation should assume a brighter

the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive aspect. Remarks made long after

is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present

ward in Congress render highly

•

probable the assumption that its appearance was somewhat delayed, awaiting the issue of the struggle in Maryland, which terminated with the battle of Antietam.31

Whether the open adhesion of the President at last to the policy of Emancipation did or did not contribute to the general defeat of his supporters in the State Elections which soon followed, is still fairly disputable. By those elections, Horatio Seymour was made Governor of New York and Joel Parker of New Jersey: supplanting Governors Morgan and Olden; while Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, also gave Opposition majorities; and Michigan, Wisconsin, and most other Western States, showed a decided falling off in Administration strength. The general result of those elections is summed up in the following table:

States.

1860-PRESIDENT. 1862-GOV. OR CONGRESS.

LINCOLN. All others. ADMIN.

New York.... 362,646

312,510

New Jersey... 58,324

62,801

Pennsylvania.. 265,030

208,412

Ohio.....

....

231,610

210,831

Indiana..... ....... 139,033

133,110

Illinois........ 172,161

16(4,215

Michigan

.....

88,480

66,267

Wisconsin 86,110

....

66,070

Iowa....

70,409

57,922

12,668

.....

....

Minnesota 22,069

Opp.

46,710 61,307

There were some counterbalancing changes in the States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, as also in that of California, where the larger share of the Douglas vote of 1860 was in '62 cast for the Union tickets; but it was clear, at the close of the State Elections of that year, that the general ill success of the War for the Union, the wide-spread and increasing repugnance to Conscription, Taxation, a depreciated Currency, and high-priced Fabrics, were arraying Public Sentiment against the further prosecution of the contest. Of course, the Opposition inveighed against the management of the War and of the Finances, the treatment of Gen. McClellan, and the general inefficiency and incapacity of the Administration; but the strength of that Opposition inhered in popular repugnance to the sacrifices exacted by and the perils involved in a

295,897 806,649 prosecution of the struggle, though 215,616 219,140 its most general and taking clamor 118,517 123,160 deprecated only "The perversion of 68,716 62,102 the War for the Union into a War

10 States.....1,498,872 1,290,806 1,192,896 1,228,677 1860-Lincoln's maj.-208,066. 1862-Opp. maj.-35,781.

The Representatives in Congress chosen from these States were politically classified as follows:

Republican at each election wherein they were allowed to vote at all; but who had not yet been enabled to vote

in the field, while their absence cre17 ated a chasm in the Administration 12 vote at home-it is quite probable

4

14

9

1860.

REPUB. Dem.

ADMIN. Opp.

23

10

14

2

8

1

18

7

12

13

8

5

Indiana..

4

Illinois.

Michigan

4

Wisconsin

Iowa......

2

6

Minnesota.

........

........

.......

..............

.......

...

67

that, had a popular election been i held at any time during the year following the Fourth of July, 1862, on the question of continuing the War or arresting it on the best attainable terms, a majority would have voted for Peace; while it is highly probaWisconsin Soldiers' Vote: Admn., 8,373; Opp., 2,046. No other States had yet authorized their soldiers in the field to vote.

LINCOLN'S SECOND PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM. 255

ble that a still larger majority would have voted against Emancipation. From an early hour of the struggle, the public mind slowly and steadily gravitated toward the conclusion that the Rebellion was vulnerable only or mainly through Slavery; but that conclusion was scarcely reached by a majority before the occurrence of the New York Riots, in July, 1863. The President, though widely reproached with tardiness and reluctance in taking up the gage plainly thrown down by the Slave Power, was probably ahead of a majority of the people of the loyal States in definitively accepting the issue of Emancipation or Dis

union.

Having taken a long step in the right direction, he never retracted nor seemed to regret it; though he sometimes observed that the beneficial results of the Emancipation policy were neither so signal nor so promptly realized as its sanguine promoters had anticipated. Nevertheless, on the day appointed, he issued his absolute Proclamation of Freedom, as follows: "Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following: to wit:

"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

"And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive Governinent of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

*

On the abstract question of the | the Union-an efficient instrument in the

right of the Government to proclaim and enforce Emancipation, Edward Everett, in a speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston, October, 1864, forcibly said:

hands of the Rebels for carrying on the war
-a source of military strength to the Rebel-
lion, and of danger to the Government at
home and abroad, with the additional cer-
ment, it will continue in all future time to
tainty that, in any event but its abandon-
work these mischiefs, who can suppose it is
the duty of the United States to continue to
recognize it? To maintain this would be a

"It is very doubtful whether any act of the Government of the United States was necessary to liberate the slaves in a State | contradiction in terms. It would be to re

which is in rebellion. There is much reason
for the opinion that, by the simple act of
levying war against the United States, the
relation of Slavery was terminated; certain-
ly, so far as concerns the duty of the United
the
States to recognize it, or to refrain from
interfering with it. Not being founded on
the law of nature, and resting solely on posi-
tive local law-and that not of the United
States-as soon as it becomes either the
motive or pretext of an unjust war against | and comfort to the enemy."

cognize a right in a Rebel master to employ
his slave in acts of rebellion and treason,
and the duty of the slave to aid and abet
his master in the commission of the greatest
crime known to the law. No such absurdity
ted States, from the President down, who
can be admitted; and any citizen of the Uni-
should, by any overt act, recognize the duty
of a slave to obey a Rebel master in a hos-
tile operation, would himself be giving aid

XII.

SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION IN CONGRESS.

THE XXXVIIth Congress, as we | the extra session, evinced a steadihave seen-while endeavoring to ly growing consciousness--steadily evade or to avert its eyes from the growing in the legislative as well as

fact that it was Slavery which was waging deadly war on the Uniondid yet give fair notice, through the guarded but decisive language of some of the more conservative Republicans, that, if the Rebellion were persisted in, it must inevitably result in the overthrow of Slavery. And the action of that Congress, even at Vol I., pp. 564-8.

the popular mind-that Slavery had
closed with the Union in mortal
strife-a struggle which both could
not survive.

Still, President Lincoln hesitated
and held back; anxious that the
Union should retain its hold on the
Border Slave States, especially on
Kentucky; and apparently hoping
by Gen. Scott, and apparently acceded to by the
Cabinet, he proceeds:

1