Produced by David Widger





                          THE GREAT CONSPIRACY

                         Its Origin and History

                                 Part 5

                                   BY

                               JOHN LOGAN




                             CHAPTER XVIII.

                       FREEDOM PROCLAIMED TO ALL.


While mentally revolving the question of Emancipation--now, evidently
"coming to a head,"--no inconsiderable portion of Mr. Lincoln's thoughts
centered upon, and his perplexities grew out of, his assumption that the
"physical difference" between the Black and White--the  African and
Caucasian races, precluded the idea of their living together in the one
land as Free men and equals.

In his speeches during the great Lincoln-Douglas debate we have seen
this idea frequently advanced, and so, in his later public utterances as
President.

As in his appeal to the Congressional delegations from the Border-States
on the 12th of July, 1862, he had held out to them the hope that "the
Freed people will not be so reluctant to go" to his projected colony in
South America, when their "numbers shall be large enough to be company
and encouragement for one another," so, at a later date--on the 14th of
August following--he appealed to the Colored Free men themselves to help
him found a proposed Negro colony in New Granada, and thus aid in the
solution of this part of the knotty problem, by the disenthrallment of
the new race from its unhappy environments here.

The substance of the President's interesting address, at the White
House, to the delegation of Colored men, for whom he had sent, was thus
reported at the time:

"Having all been seated, the President, after a few preliminary
observations, informed them that a sum of money had been appropriated by
Congress, and placed at his disposition, for the purpose of aiding the
colonization in some country of the people, or a portion of them, of
African descent, thereby making it his duty, as it had for a long time
been his inclination, to favor that cause; and why, he asked, should the
people of your race be colonized, and where?

"Why should they leave this Country?  This is perhaps the first question
for proper consideration.  You and we are different races.  We have
between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two
races.  Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss; but this
physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think.
Your race suffers very greatly, many of them by living among us, while
ours suffers from your presence.  In a word we suffer on each side.  If
this is admitted, it affords a reason, at least, why we should be
separated.  You here are Freemen, I suppose?

"A VOICE--Yes, Sir.

"THE PRESIDENT--Perhaps you have long been free, or all your lives.
Your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on
any people.  But even when you cease to be Slaves, you are yet far
removed from being placed on an equality with the White race.  You are
cut off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoys.  The
aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free; but on
this broad continent not a single man of your race is made the equal of
a single man of ours.  Go where you are treated the best, and the ban is
still upon you.  I do not propose to discuss this, but to present it as
a fact, with which we have to deal.  I cannot alter it if I would.  It
is a fact about which we all think and feel alike, I and you.  We look
to our condition.

"Owing to the existence of the two races on this continent, I need not
recount to you the effects upon White men, growing out of the
institution of Slavery.  I believe in its general evil effects on the
White race.  See our present condition--the Country engaged in War!  our
white men cutting one another's throats--none knowing how far it will
extend--and then consider what we know to be the truth.  But for your
race among us there could not be War, although many men engaged on
either side do not care for you one way or the other.  Nevertheless, I
repeat, without the institution of Slavery, and the Colored race as a
basis, the War could not have an existence.  It is better for us both,
therefore, to be separated.

"I know that there are Free men among you who, even if they could better
their condition, are not as much inclined to go out of the Country as
those who, being Slaves, could obtain their Freedom on this condition.
I suppose one of the principal difficulties in the way of colonization
is that the free colored man cannot see that his comfort would be
advanced by it.  You may believe that you can live in Washington, or
elsewhere in the United States, the remainder of your life; perhaps more
so than you can in any foreign country, and hence you may come to the
conclusion that you have nothing to do with the idea of going to a
foreign country.

"This is, (I speak in no unkind sense) an extremely selfish view of the
case.  But you ought to do something to help those who are not so
fortunate as yourselves.  There is an unwillingness on the part of our
People, harsh as it may be, for you free Colored people to remain with
us.  Now if you could give a start to the White people you would open a
wide door for many to be made free.  If we deal with those who are not
free at the beginning, and whose intellects are clouded by Slavery, we
have very poor material to start with.

"If intelligent Colored men, such as are before me, could move in this
matter, much might be accomplished.  It is exceedingly important that we
have men at the beginning capable of thinking as White men, and not
those who have been systematically oppressed.  There is much to
encourage you.

"For the sake of your race you should sacrifice something of your
present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the
White people.  It is a cheering thought throughout life, that something
can be done to ameliorate the condition of those who have been subject
to the hard usages of the World.  It is difficult to make a man
miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to
the great God who made him.

"In the American Revolutionary War, sacrifices were made by men engaged
in it, but they were cheered by the future.  General Washington himself
endured greater physical hardships than if he had remained a British
subject, yet he was a happy man, because he was engaged in benefiting
his race, in doing something for the children of his neighbors, having
none of his own.

"The Colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time.  In a certain
sense it is a success.  The old President of Liberia, Roberts, has just
been with me the first time I ever saw him.  He says they have, within
the bounds of that Colony, between three and four hundred thousand
people, or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode Island, or
Delaware, or in some of our newer States, and less than in some of our
larger ones.  They are not all American colonists or their descendants.
Something less than 12,000 have been sent thither from this Country.
Many of the original settlers have died, yet, like people elsewhere,
their offspring outnumber those deceased.

"The question is, if the Colored people are persuaded to go anywhere,
why not there?  One reason for unwillingness to do so is that some of
you would rather remain within reach of the country of your nativity.  I
do not know how much attachment you may have toward our race.  It does
not strike me that you have the greatest reason to love them.  But still
you are attached to them at all events.

"The place I am thinking about having for a colony, is in Central
America.  It is nearer to us than Liberia--not much more than one-fourth
as far as Liberia, and within seven days' run by steamers.  Unlike
Liberia, it is a great line of travel--it is a highway.  The country is
a very excellent one for any people, and with great natural resources
and advantages, and especially because of the similarity of climate with
your native soil, thus being suited to your physical condition.

"The particular place I have in view, is to be a great highway from the
Atlantic or Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and this particular
place has all the advantages for a colony.  On both sides there are
harbors among the finest in the World.  Again, there is evidence of very
rich coal mines.  A certain amount of coal is valuable in any country.
Why I attach so much importance to coal is, it will afford an
opportunity to the inhabitants for immediate employment till they get
ready to settle permanently in their homes.

"If you take colonists where there is no good landing, there is a bad
show; and so, where there is nothing to cultivate, and of which to make
a farm.  But if something is started so that you can get your daily
bread as soon as you reach there, it is a great advantage.  Coal land is
the best thing I know of, with which to commence an enterprise.

"To return--you have been talked to upon this subject, and told that a
speculation is intended by gentlemen who have an interest in the
country, including the coal mines.  We have been mistaken all our
lives if we do not know Whites, as well as Blacks, look to their
self-interest.  Unless among those deficient of intellect, everybody you
trade with makes something.  You meet with these things here and
everywhere.  If such persons have what will be an advantage to them, the
question is, whether it cannot be made of advantage to you?

"You are intelligent, and know that success does not as much depend on
external help, as on self-reliance.  Much, therefore, depends upon
yourselves.  As to the coal mines, I think I see the means available for
your self-reliance.  I shall, if I get a sufficient number of you
engaged, have provision made that you shall not be wronged.  If you will
engage in the enterprise, I will spend some of the money intrusted to
me.  I am not sure you will succeed.  The Government may lose the money,
but we cannot succeed unless we try; but we think, with care, we can
succeed.

"The political affairs in Central America are not in quite as
satisfactory condition as I wish.  There are contending factions in that
quarter; but it is true, all the factions are agreed alike on the
subject of colonization, and want it; and are more generous than we are
here.  To your Colored race they have no objection.  Besides, I would
endeavor to have you made equals, and have the best assurance that you
should be the equals of the best.

"The practical thing I want to ascertain is, whether I can get a number
of able-bodied men, with their wives and children, who are willing to
go, when I present evidence of encouragement and protection.  Could I
get a hundred tolerably intelligent men, with their wives and children,
and able to 'cut their own fodder' so to speak?  Can I have fifty?  If I
could find twenty-five able-bodied men, with a mixture of women and
children--good things in the family relation, I think I could make a
successful commencement.

"I want you to let me know whether this can be done or not.  This is the
practical part of my wish to see you.  These are subjects of very great
importance--worthy of a month's study, of a speech delivered in an hour.
I ask you, then, to consider seriously, not as pertaining to yourselves
merely, nor for your race, and ours, for the present time, but as one of
the things, if successfully managed, for the good of mankind--not
confined to the present generation, but as:

              "From age to age descends the lay
               To millions yet to be,
               Till far its echoes roll away
               Into eternity."'

President Lincoln's well-meant colored colonization project, however,
fell through, owing partly to opposition to it in Central America, and
partly to the very natural and deeply-rooted disinclination of the
Colored free men to leave the land of their birth.

Meanwhile, limited Military Emancipation of Slaves was announced and
regulated, on the 22d July, 1862, by the following Executive
Instructions, which were issued from the War Department by order of the
President--the issue of which was assigned by Jefferson Davis as one
reason for his Order of August 1, 1862, directing "that the commissioned
officers of Pope's and Steinwehr's commands be not entitled, when
captured, to be treated as soldiers and entitled to the benefit of the
cartel of exchange:"


"WAR DEPARTMENT,
"WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 1862.

"First.  Ordered that Military Commanders within the States of Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Texas, and Arkansas, in an orderly manner seize and use any property,
real or personal, which may be necessary or convenient for their several
commands, for supplies, or for other Military purposes; and that while
property may be destroyed for proper Military objects, none shall be
destroyed in wantonness or malice.

"Second.  That Military and Naval Commanders shall employ as laborers,
within and from said States, so many Persons of African descent as can
be advantageously used for Military or Naval purposes, giving them
reasonable wages for their labor.

"Third.  That, as to both property, and Persons of African descent,
accounts shall be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail to show
quantities and amounts, and from whom both property and such Persons
shall have come, as a basis upon which compensation can be made in
proper cases; and the several departments of this Government shall
attend to and perform their appropriate parts towards the execution of
these orders.

"By Order of the President:

                         "EDWIN M. STANTON,
                         "Secretary of War."


On the 9th of August, 1862, Major General McClellan promulgated the
Executive Order of July 22, 1862, from his Headquarters at Harrison's
Landing, Va., with certain directions of his own, among which were the
following:

"Inhabitants, especially women and children, remaining peaceably at
their homes, must not be molested; and wherever commanding officers find
families peculiarly exposed in their persons or property to marauding
from this Army, they will, as heretofore, so far as they can do with
safety and without detriment to the service, post guards for their
protection.

"In protecting private property, no reference is intended to Persons
held to service or labor by reason of African Descent.  Such Persons
will be regarded by this Army, as they heretofore have been, as
occupying simply a peculiar legal status under State laws, which
condition the Military authorities of the United States are not required
to regard at all in districts where Military operations are made
necessary by the rebellious action of the State governments.

"Persons subject to suspicion of hostile purposes, residing or being
near our Forces, will be, as heretofore, subject to arrest and
detention, until the cause or necessity is removed.  All such arrested
parties will be sent, as usual, to the Provost-Marshal General, with a
statement of the facts in each case.

"The General Commanding takes this occasion to remind the officers and
soldiers of this Army that we are engaged in supporting the Constitution
and the Laws of the United States and suppressing Rebellion against
their authority; that we are not engaged in a War of rapine, revenge, or
subjugation; that this is not a contest against populations, but against
armed forces and political organizations; that it is a struggle carried
on with the United States, and should be conducted by us upon the
highest principles known to Christian civilization.

"Since this Army commenced active operations, Persons of African
descent, including those held to service or labor under State laws, have
always been received, protected, and employed as laborers at wages.
Hereafter it shall be the duty of the Provost-Marshal General to cause
lists to be made of all persons of African descent employed in this Army
as laborers for Military purposes--such lists being made sufficiently
accurate and in detail to show from whom such persons shall have come.

"Persons so subject and so employed have always understood that after
being received into the Military service of the United States, in any
capacity, they could never be reclaimed by their former holders.  Except
upon such understanding on their part, the order of the President, as to
this class of Persons, would be inoperative.  The General Commanding
therefore feels authorized to declare to all such employees, that they
will receive permanent Military protection against any compulsory return
to a condition of servitude."

Public opinion was now rapidly advancing, under the pressure of Military
necessity, and the energetic efforts of the immediate Emancipationists,
to a belief that Emancipation by Presidential Proclamation would be wise
and efficacious as an instrumentality toward subduing the Rebellion;
that it must come, sooner or later--and the sooner, the better.

Indeed, great fault was found, by some of these, with what they
characterized as President Lincoln's "obstinate slowness" to come up to
their advanced ideas on the subject.  He was even accused of failing to
execute existing laws touching confiscation of Slaves of Rebels coming
within the lines of the Union Armies.  On the 19th of August, 1862, a
letter was addressed to him by Horace Greeley which concluded thus:

"On the face of this wide Earth, Mr. President, there is not one
disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union Cause who
does not feel that all attempts to put down the Rebellion, and at the
same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile--that
the Rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a year
if Slavery were left in full vigor--that Army officers, who remain to
this day devoted to Slavery, can at best be but half-way loyal to the
Union--and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour of added
and deepened peril to the Union.

"I appeal to the testimony of your embassadors in Europe.  It is freely
at your service, not mine.  Ask them to tell you candidly whether
the seeming subserviency of your policy to the Slaveholding,
Slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the despair,
of Statesmen of all parties; and be admonished by the general answer.

"I close, as I began, with the statement that what an immense majority
of the loyal millions of your countrymen require of you, is a frank,
declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the Laws of the Land,
more especially of the Confiscation Act.  That Act gives Freedom to the
Slaves of Rebels coming within our lines, or whom those lines may at any
time inclose.  We ask you to render it due obedience by publicly
requiring all your subordinates to recognize and obey it.

"The Rebels are everywhere using the late Anti-Negro riots in the North
--as they have long used your officers' treatment of Negroes in the
South--to convince the Slaves that they have nothing to hope from a
Union success--that we mean in that case to sell them into a bitter
Bondage to defray the cost of the War.

"Let them impress this as a truth on the great mass of their ignorant
and credulous Bondmen, and the Union will never be restored--never.  We
can not conquer ten millions of people united in solid phalanx against
us, powerfully aided by Northern sympathizers and European allies.

"We must have scouts, guides, spies, cooks, teamsters, diggers, and
choppers, from the Blacks of the South--whether we allow them to fight
for us or not--or we shall be baffled and repelled.

"As one of the Millions who would gladly have avoided this struggle, at
any sacrifice but that of principle and honor, but who now feel that the
triumph of the Union is indispensable not only to the existence of our
Country, but to the well-being of mankind, I entreat you to render a
hearty and unequivocal obedience to the Law of the Land.
                         "Yours,
                              "HORACE GREELEY."


To this letter, President Lincoln at once made the following memorable
reply:

                         "EXECUTIVE MANSION,
               "WASHINGTON, Friday, August 22, 1862.

"HON. HORACE GREELEY

"DEAR SIR:--I have just read yours of the 19th inst. addressed to myself
through the New York Tribune.

"If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may
know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.

"If there be any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I
do not now and here argue against them.

"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I
waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always
supposed to be right.

"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant
to leave any one in doubt.  I would save the Union.  I would save it in
the shortest way under the Constitution.

"The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the Union
will be--the Union as it was.

"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the
same time save Slavery, I do not agree with them.

"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the
same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree, with them.

"My paramount object is to save the Union and not either to save or
destroy Slavery.

"If I could save the Union without freeing any Slave, I would do it--and
if I could save it by freeing all the Slaves, I would do it--and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do
that.

"What I do about Slavery and the Colored race, I do because I believe it
helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union.

"I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the
cause, and shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the
cause.

"I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall
adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty,
and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
men everywhere could be free.
                         "Yours,
                                   "A. LINCOLN."


On the 13th of September, 1862, a deputation from all the religious
denominations of Chicago presented to President Lincoln a memorial for
the immediate issue of a Proclamation of Emancipation, to which, and the
Chairman's remarks, he thus replied:

"The subject presented in the Memorial is one upon which I have thought
much for weeks past, and I may even say, for months.  I am approached
with the most opposite opinions, and advice, and that by religious men,
who are equally certain that they represent the Divine will.  I am sure
that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and
perhaps, in some respects, both.  I hope it will not be irreverent for
me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to
others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He
would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself
than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence
in this matter.  And if I can learn what it is, I will do it!

"These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be
granted that I am not to expect a direct Revelation; I must study the
plain physical aspects of the case, ascertain what is possible, and
learn what appears to be wise and right!

"The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree.  For instance, the
other day, four gentlemen, of standing and intelligence, from New York,
called, as a delegation, on business connected with the War; but, before
leaving, two of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general
Emancipation, upon which the other two at once attacked them.

"You know also that the last Session of Congress had a decided majority
of Anti-Slavery men, yet they could not unite on this policy.  And the
same is true of the religious people; why the Rebel soldiers are praying
with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and
expecting God to favor their side; for one of our soldiers, who had been
taken prisoner, told Senator Wilson, a few days since, that he met
nothing so discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he was among,
in their prayers.  But we will talk over the merits of the case.

"What good would a Proclamation of Emancipation from me do, especially
as we are now situated?  I do not want to issue a document that the
whole World will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's
Bull against the Comet!  Would my word free the Slaves, when I cannot
even enforce the Constitution in the Rebel States?  Is there a single
Court or Magistrate, or individual that would be influenced by it there?
And what reason is there to think it would have any greater effect upon
the Slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved and which
offers protection and Freedom to the Slaves of Rebel masters who came
within our lines?  Yet I cannot learn that that law has caused a single
Slave to come over to us.

"And suppose they could be induced by a Proclamation of Freedom from me
to throw themselves upon us, what should we do with them?  How can we
feed and care for such a multitude?  General Butler wrote me a few days
since that he was issuing more rations to the Slaves who have rushed to
him, than to all the White troops under his command.  They eat, and that
is all; though it is true General Butler is feeding the Whites also, by
the thousand; for it nearly amounts to a famine there.

"If, now, the pressure of the War should call off our forces from New
Orleans to defend some other point, what is to prevent the masters from
reducing the Blacks to Slavery again; for I am told that whenever the
Rebels take any Black prisoners, Free or Slave, they immediately auction
them off!  They did so with those they took from a boat that was aground
in the Tennessee river a few days ago.

"And then I am very ungenerously attacked for it!  For instance, when,
after the late battles at and near Bull Run, an expedition went out from
Washington, under a flag of truce, to bury the dead and bring in the
wounded, and the Rebels seized the Blacks who went along to help, and
sent them into Slavery, Horace Greeley said in his paper that the
Government would probably do nothing about it.  What could I do?

"Now, then, tell me, if you please, what possible result of good would
follow the issuing of such a Proclamation as you desire?  Understand, I
raise no objections against it on legal or Constitutional grounds, for,
as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, in time of War, I suppose I
have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the Enemy, nor do
I urge objections of a moral nature, in view of possible consequences 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.

                *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

"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 impotent 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
ambition.  I grant, further, that it would help somewhat at the North,
though not so much, I fear, as you and those you represent imagine.

"Still, some additional strength would 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 anything!

               *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

"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 night, more than any other.  Whatever shall
appear to be God's will I will do.

"I trust that in the freedom with which I have canvassed your views I
have not in any respect injured your feelings."


On the 22d day of September, 1862, not only the Nation, but the whole
World, was electrified by the publication--close upon the heels of the
Union victory of Antietam--of the Proclamation of Emancipation--weighted
with consequences so wide and far-reaching that even at this late day
they cannot all be discerned.  It was in these words:



"I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States of America, and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and
declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the War will be prosecuted for
the object of practically restoring the Constitutional relation between
the United States and each of the States and the people thereof, in
which States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed.

"That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again
recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to
the free acceptance or rejection of all Slave States, so called, the
people whereof may not then be in Rebellion against the United States,
and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may
voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of Slavery 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.

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight 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 States, shall be then, thenceforward, and
forever Free; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the Military and Naval authority thereof, will 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 first 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 States shall have participated, shall, in the
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive
evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not in Rebellion
against the United States.

"That attention is hereby called to an Act of Congress entitled 'An Act
to make an additional Article of War,' approved March 31, 1862, and
which Act is in the words and figures following:

"'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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.

"ARTICLE--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.

"'SECTION 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
17, 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 the 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 the person to whom the
labor or service of such Fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful
owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present
Rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; 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
claim 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 observe, obey, and
enforce, within their respective 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 my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.

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

"By the President:
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"WILLIAM H.  SEWARD, Secretary of State."


This Proclamation, promising Freedom to an Enslaved race, was hailed
with acclamations everywhere save in the rebellious Southern-Slave
States, and in the Border-Slave States.

At a meeting of Governors of Loyal States, held at Altoona,
Pennsylvania, to take measures for the more active support of the
Government, an Address was adopted, on the very day that the
Proclamation was promulgated, which well expressed the general feeling
prevailing throughout the Northern States, at this time.  It was in
these patriotic words:

"After nearly one year and a half spent in contest with an armed and
gigantic Rebellion against the National Government of the United States,
the duty and purpose of the Loyal States and people continue, and must
always remain as they were at its origin--namely to restore and
perpetuate the authority of this Government and the life of the Nation.
No matter what consequences are involved in our fidelity, this work of
restoring the Republic, preserving the institutions of democratic
Liberty, and justifying the hopes and toils of our Fathers, shall not
fail to be performed.

"And we pledge, without hesitation, to the President of the United
States, the most loyal and cordial support, hereto as heretofore, in
the exercise of the functions of his great office.  We recognize in him
the chief Executive magistrate of the Nation, the Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and Navy of the United States, their responsible and
constitutional head, whose rightful authority and power, as well as the
Constitutional powers of Congress, must be rigorously and religiously
guarded and preserved, as the condition on which alone our form of
Government and the constitutional rights and liberties of the People
themselves can be saved from the wreck of anarchy or from the gulf
'despotism.

"In submission to the laws which may have been or which may be duly
enacted, and to the lawful orders of the President, cooperating always
in our own spheres with the National Government, we mean to continue in
the most rigorous exercise of all our lawful and proper powers,
contending against Treason, Rebellion, and the public Enemies, and,
whether in public life or in private station, supporting the arms of the
Union, until its Cause shall conquer, until final victory shall perch
upon its standard, or the Rebel foe will yield a dutiful, rightful, and
unconditional submission.  And, impressed with the conviction that an
Army of reserve ought, until the War shall end, to be constantly kept on
foot, to be raised, armed, equipped, and trained at home, and ready for
emergencies, we respectfully ask the President to call such a force of
volunteers for one year's service, of not less than one hundred thousand
in the aggregate, the quota of each State to be raised after it shall
have led its quota of the requisitions already made, both for volunteers
and militia.  We believe that this would be a Leasure of Military
prudence, while it would greatly promote the Military education of the
People.

"We hail with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope the Proclamation
of the President, issued on the 22nd instant, declaring Emancipated from
their bondage all Persons held to Service or Labor as Slaves in the
Rebel States, whose Rebellion shall last until the first day of January
next ensuing.

"The right of any person to retain authority to compel any portion of
the subjects of the National Government to rebel against it, or to
maintain its Enemies, implies in those who are allowed possession of
such authority the right to rebel themselves; and therefore, the right
to establish Martial Law or Military Government in a State or Territory
in Rebellion implies the right and the duty of the Government to
liberate the minds of all men living therein by appropriate
Proclamations and assurances of protection, in order that all who are
capable, intellectually and morally, of loyalty and obedience, may not
be forced into Treason as the unwilling tools of rebellious Traitors.

"To have continued indefinitely the most efficient cause, support, and
stay of the Rebellion, would have been, in our judgment, unjust to the
Loyal people whose treasure and lives are made a willing sacrifice on
the altar of patriotism--would have discriminated against the wife who
is compelled to surrender her husband, against the parent who is to
surrender his child, to the hardships of the camp and the perils of
battle, in favor of Rebel masters permitted to retain their Slaves.  It
would have been a final decision alike against humanity, justice, the
rights and dignity of the Government, and against sound and wise
National policy.

"The decision of the President to strike at the root of the Rebellion
will lend new vigor to efforts, and new life and hope to the hearts of
the People.  Cordially tendering to the President our respectful
assurances of personal and official confidence, we trust and believe
that the policy now inaugurated will be crowned with success, will give
speedy and triumphant victories over our enemies, and secure to this
Nation and this People the blessing and favor of Almighty God.

"We believe that the blood of the heroes who have already fallen, and
those who may yet give their lives to their Country, will not have been
shed in vain.

"The splendid valor of our soldiers, their patient endurance, their
manly patriotism, and their devotion to duty, demand from us and from
all their countrymen the homage of the sincerest gratitude and the
pledge of our constant reinforcement and support.  A just regard for
these brave men, whom we have contributed to place in the field, and for
the importance of the duties which may lawfully pertain to us hereafter,
has called us into friendly conference.

"And now, presenting to our National Chief Magistrate this conclusion of
our deliberations, we devote ourselves to our Country's service, and we
will surround the President with our constant support, trusting that the
fidelity and zeal of the Loyal States and People will always assure him
that he will be constantly maintained in pursuing, with the utmost
vigor, this War for the preservation of the National life and hope of
humanity.

"A. G. CURTIN,
"JOHN A. ANDREW,
"RICHARD YATES,
"ISRAEL WASHBURNE, Jr.,
"EDWARD SOLOMON,
"SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD,
"O. P. MORTON,--By D.  G.  ROSE, his Representative,
"WM. SPRAGUE,
"F. H. PEIRPOINT,
"DAVID TOD,
"N. S. BERRY,
"AUSTIN BLAIR."


Some two months after the issue of his great Proclamation of Liberty,
President Lincoln (in his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1,
1862), took occasion again to refer to compensated Emancipation, and,
indeed, to the entire matter of Slavery and Freedom, in most instructive
and convincing manner, as follows:

"On the 22d day of September last, a Proclamation was issued by the
Executive, a copy of which is herewith  submitted.

"In accordance with the purpose in the second paragraph of that paper, I
now respectfully recall your attention to what may be called
'compensated Emancipation.'

"A Nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its
laws.  The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.
'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the
Earth abideth forever.'  It is of the first importance to duly consider
and estimate this ever-enduring part.

"That portion of the Earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the
People of the United States, is well adapted to be the home of one
National family; and it is not well adapted for two, or more.  Its vast
extent, and its variety of climate and productions, are of advantage, in
this age, for one People, whatever they might have been in former ages.
Steam, telegraphs, and intelligence, have brought these to be an
advantageous combination for one united People.

"In the Inaugural Address I briefly pointed out the total inadequacy of
Disunion, as a remedy for the differences between the people of the two
Sections.  I did so in language which I cannot improve, and which,
therefore, I beg to repeat:

"'One Section of our Country believes Slavery is right, and ought to be
extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be
extended.  This is the only substantial dispute.  The Fugitive Slave
clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the
foreign Slave Trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can
ever be in a community where the moral sense of the People imperfectly
supports the law itself.

"The great body of the People abide by the dry legal obligation in both
cases, and a few break over in each.  This, I think, cannot be perfectly
cured; and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the
Sections, than before.  The foreign Slave Trade, now imperfectly
suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one
Section; while Fugitive Slaves, now only partially surrendered, would
not be surrendered at all by the other.

"Physically speaking, we cannot separate.  We cannot remove our
respective Sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
between them.  A husband and wife may be divorced, and each go out of
the presence and beyond the reach of the other; but the different parts
of our Country cannot do this.  They cannot but remain face to face; and
intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them.

"'Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or
more satisfactory after separation than before?  Can aliens make
treaties easier than friends can make laws?  Can treaties be more
faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? suppose
you go to War, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on
both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old
questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.'

"There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a National boundary
upon which to divide.  Trace through, from East to West, upon the line
between the Free and Slave Country, and we shall find a little more than
one third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and populated,
or soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides; while nearly all its
remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over which people may walk
back and forth without any consciousness of their presence.

"No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass, by writing
it down on paper or parchment as a National boundary.  The fact of
separation, if it comes, gives up, on the part of the seceding Section,
the Fugitive Slave clause, along with all other Constitutional
obligations upon the Section seceded from, while I should expect no
treaty stipulations would ever be made to take its place.

"But there is another difficulty.  The great interior region, bounded
East by the Alleghanies, North by the British dominions, West by the
Rocky Mountains, and South by the line along which the culture of corn
and cotton meets, and which includes part of Virginia, part of
Tennessee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of
Dakota, Nebraska, and part of Colorado, already has above ten million
people, and will have fifty millions within fifty years, if not
prevented by any political folly or mistake.

"It contains more than one-third of the country owned by the United
States-certainly more than one million square miles.  Once half as
populous as Massachusetts already is, it would have more than
seventy-five million people.  A glance at the map shows that,
territorially speaking, it is the great body of the Republic.  The other
parts are but marginal borders to it, the magnificent region sloping
West, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, being the deepest and
also the richest in undeveloped resources.  In the production of
provisions, grains, grasses, and all which proceed from them, this great
interior region is naturally one of the most important in the World.

"Ascertain from the statistics the small proportion of the region which
has, as yet, been brought into cultivation, and also the large and
rapidly increasing amount of its products, and we shall be overwhelmed
with the magnitude of the prospect presented.  And yet this region has
no sea coast, touches no ocean anywhere.  As part of one Nation, its
people now find, and may forever find, their way to Europe by New York,
to South America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San
Francisco.

"But separate our common Country into two nations, as designed by the
present Rebellion, and every man of this great interior region is
thereby cut off from some one or more of these outlets, not, perhaps, by
a physical barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations.

"And this is true, wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed.
Place it between the now Free and Slave country, or place it South of
Kentucky, or North of Ohio, and still the truth remains, that none South
of it can trade to any port or place North of it, and none North of it
can trade to any port or place South of it except upon terms dictated by
a Government foreign to them.

"These outlets, East, West, and South, are indispensable to the
well-being of the people inhabiting, and to inhabit, this vast interior
region.  Which of the three may be the best, is no proper question.
All, are better than either; and all, of right belong to that People,
and to their successors forever.  True to themselves, they will not ask
where a line of separation shall be, but will vow rather that there
shall be no such line.

"Nor are the marginal regions less interested in these communications to
and through them, to the great outside World.  They too, and each of
them, must have access to this Egypt of the West without paying toll at
the crossing of any National boundary.

"Our National strife springs not from our permanent part; not from the
Land we inhabit; not from our National homestead.  There is no possible
severing of this, but would multiply, and not mitigate, evils among us.
In all its adaptations and aptitudes it demands Union, and abhors
separation.  In fact it would, ere long, force reunion, however much of
blood and treasure the separation might have cost.

"Our strife pertains to ourselves--to the passing generations of men;
and it can, without convulsion, be hushed forever--with the passing of
one generation.

"In this view I recommend the adoption of the following Resolution and
Articles Amendatory of the Constitution of the United States.

"'Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses
concurring).  That the following Articles be proposed to the
Legislatures (or Conventions) of the several States, as Amendments to
the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which Articles when
ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures (or Conventions) to
be valid as part or parts of the said Constitution, namely:

"'ARTICLE--Every State wherein Slavery now exists, which shall abolish
the same therein, at any time, or times, before the first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall
receive compensation from the United States, as follows, to wit;

"'The President of the United States shall deliver to every such State,
bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the rate of per cent.
per annum, to an amount equal to the aggregate sum of for each Slave
shown to have been therein by the eighth census of the United States,
said bonds to be delivered to such States by installments, or in one
parcel, at the completion of the abolishment, accordingly as the same
shall have been gradual, or at one time, within such State; and interest
shall begin to run upon any such bond only from the proper time of its
delivery as aforesaid.  Any State having received bonds as aforesaid,
and afterward reintroducing or tolerating Slavery therein, shall refund
to the United States the bonds so received, or the value thereof, and
all interest paid thereon.

"'ARTICLE--All Slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the
chances of the War at any time before the end of the Rebellion, shall be
forever Free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been disloyal,
shall be compensated for them, at the same rates as is provided for
States adopting abolishment of Slavery, but in such way that no Slave
shall be twice accounted for.

"'ARTICLE--Congress may appropriate money, and otherwise provide for
colonizing Free Colored Persons, with their own consent, at any place or
places within the United States.'


"I beg indulgence to discuss these proposed Articles at some length.
Without Slavery the Rebellion could never have existed; without Slavery
it could not continue.

"Among the friends of the Union there is great diversity of sentiment
and of policy in regard to Slavery, and the African race among us.  Some
would perpetuate Slavery; some would abolish it suddenly, without
compensation; some would abolish it gradually, and with compensation;
some would remove the Freed people from us; and some would retain them
with us; and there are yet other minor diversities.  Because of these
diversities, we waste much strength in struggles among ourselves.

"By mutual Concession we should harmonize and act together.  This would
be Compromise; but it would be Compromise among the friends, and not
with the enemies of the Union.  These Articles are intended to embody a
plan of such mutual concessions.  If the plan shall be adopted, it is
assumed that Emancipation will follow, at least, in several of the
States.

"As to the first Article, the main points are: first, the Emancipation;
secondly, the length of time for consummating it--thirty-seven years;
and, thirdly, the compensation.

"The Emancipation will be unsatisfactory to the advocates of perpetual
Slavery; but the length of time should greatly mitigate their
dissatisfaction.  The time spares both races from the evils of sudden
derangement--in fact from the necessity of any derangement--while most
of those whose habitual course of thought will be disturbed by the
measure will have passed away before its consummation.  They will never
see it.

"Another class will hail the prospect of Emancipation, but will
deprecate the length of time.  They will feel that it gives too little
to the now living Slaves.  But it really gives them much.  It saves them
from the vagrant destitution which must largely attend immediate
Emancipation in localities where their numbers are very great; and it
gives the inspiring assurance that their posterity shall be Free
forever.

"The plan leaves to each State, choosing to act under it, to abolish
Slavery now, or at the end of the century, or at any intermediate time,
or by degrees, extending over the whole or any part of the period; and
it obliges no two States to proceed alike.  It also provides for
compensation,--and generally, the mode of making it.  This, it would
seem, must further mitigate the dissatisfaction of those who favor
perpetual Slavery, and especially of those who are to receive the
compensation.  Doubtless some of those who are to pay, and not to
receive, will object.  Yet the measure is both just and economical.

"In a certain sense, the liberation of Slaves is the destruction of
Property--Property acquired by descent, or by purchase, the same as any
other property.  It is no less true for having been often said, that the
people of the South are not more responsible for the original
introduction of this Property than are the people of the North; and when
it is remembered how unhesitatingly we all use cotton and sugar, and
share the profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite safe to say
that the South has been more responsible than the North for its
continuance.

"If, then, for a common object, this Property is to be sacrificed, is it
not just that it be done at a common charge?

"And if, with less money, or money more easily paid, we can preserve the
benefits of the Union by this means than we can by the War alone, is it
not also economical to do it?  Let us consider it then.  Let us
ascertain the sum we have expended in the War since compensated
Emancipation was proposed last March, and consider whether, if that
measure had been promptly accepted, by even some of the Slave States,
the same sum would not have done more to close the War than has been
otherwise done.  If so, the measure would save money, and, in that view,
would be a prudent and economical measure.

"Certainly it is not so easy to pay something as it is to pay nothing;
but it is easier to pay a large sum than it is to pay a larger one.  And
it is easier to pay any sum when we are able, than it is to pay it
before we are able.  The War requires large sums, and requires them at
once.

"The aggregate sum necessary for compensated Emancipation of course
would be large.  But it would require no ready cash, nor the bonds,
even, any faster than the Emancipation progresses.  This might not, and
probably would not, close before the end of the thirty-seven years.  At
that time we shall probably have a hundred million people to share the
burden, instead of thirty-one millions, as now.  And not only so, but
the increase of our population may be expected to continue, for a long
time after that period, as rapidly as before; because our territory will
not have become full.

"I do not state this inconsiderately.  At the same ratio of increase
which we have maintained, on an average, from our first National census
in 1790, until that of 1860, we should, in 1900, have a population of
103,208,415.  And why may we not continue that ratio far beyond that
period?

"Our abundant room--our broad National homestead--is our ample resource.
Were our territory as limited as are the British Isles, very certainly
our population could not expand as stated.  Instead of receiving the
foreign born, as now, we should be compelled to send part of the
Native-born away.

"But such is not our condition.  We have two million nine hundred and
sixty-three thousand square miles.  Europe has three million and eight
hundred thousand, with a population averaging seventy-three and
one-third persons to the square mile.  Why may not our Country at some
time, average as many?  Is it less fertile?  Has it more waste surface
by mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, or other causes?  Is it inferior
to Europe in any natural advantage?

"If, then, we are at some time to be as populous as Europe, how soon?
As to when this may be, we can judge by the past and the present; as to
when it will be, if ever, depends much on whether we maintain the Union.

"Several of our States are already above the average of Europe
--seventy-three and a third to the square mile.  Massachusetts has 157;
Rhode Island, 133; Connecticut, 99; New York and New Jersey, each, 80.
Also two other great States, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are not far below,
the former having 63, and the latter 59.  The States already above the
European average, except New York, have increased in as rapid a ratio,
since passing that point, as ever before; while no one of them is equal
to some other parts of our Country in natural capacity for sustaining a
dense population.

"Taking the Nation in the aggregate, and we find its population and
ratio of increase, for the several decennial periods, to be as follows:

YEAR.  POPULATION. RATIO OF INCREASE

1790   3,929,827

1800   5,305,937   35.02 Per Cent.

1810   7,239,814   36.45

1820   9,638,131   33.13

1830  12,866,020   33.49

1840  17,069,453   32.67

1850  23,191,876   35.87

1860  31,443,790   35.58

"This shows an average Decennial Increase of 34.69 per cent. in
population through the seventy years from our first to our last census
yet taken.  It is seen that the ratio of increase, at no one of these
seven periods, is either two per cent. below or two per cent. above the
average; thus showing how inflexible, and, consequently, how reliable,
the law of Increase, in our case, is.

"Assuming that it will continue, gives the following results:

YEAR.  POPULATION.

1870   42,323,041

1880   56,967,216

1890   76,677,872

1900  103,208,415

1910  138,918,526

1920  186,984,335

1930  251,680,914

"These figures show that our Country may be as populous as Europe now is
at some point between 1920 and 1930--say about 1925--our territory, at
seventy-three and a third persons to the square mile, being of capacity
to contain 217,186,000.

"And we will reach this, too, if we do not ourselves relinquish the
chance by the folly and evils of Disunion or by long and exhausting War
springing from the only great element of National discord among us.
While it cannot be foreseen exactly how much one huge example of
Secession, breeding lesser ones indefinitely, would retard population,
civilization and prosperity, no one can doubt that the extent of it
would be very great and injurious.

"The proposed Emancipation would shorten the War, perpetuate Peace,
insure this increase of population, and proportionately the wealth of
the Country.  With these, we should pay all the Emancipation would cost,
together with our other debt, easier than we should pay our other debt
without it.

"If we had allowed our old National debt to run at six per cent. per
annum, simple interest, from the end of our Revolutionary Struggle until
to-day, without paying anything on either principal or interest, each
man of us would owe less upon that debt now than each man owed upon it
then; and this because our increase of men through the whole period has
been greater than six per cent.; has run faster than the interest upon
the debt.  Thus, time alone, relieves a debtor Nation, so long as its
population increases faster than unpaid interest accumulates on its
debt.

"This fact would be no excuse for delaying payment of what is justly
due, but it shows the great importance of time in this connection--the
great advantage of a policy by which we shall not have to pay until we
number a hundred millions, what, by a different policy, we would have to
pay now, when we number but thirty-one millions.  In a word, it shows
that a dollar will be much harder to pay for the War, than will be a
dollar for Emancipation on the proposed plan.  And then the latter will
cost no blood, no precious life.  It will be a saving of both.

"As to the Second Article, I think it would be impracticable to return
to Bondage the class of Persons therein contemplated.  Some of them,
doubtless, in the property sense, belong to loyal owners and hence
provision is made in this Article for compensating such.

"The Third Article relates to the future of the Freed people.  It does
not oblige, but merely authorizes, Congress to aid in colonizing such as
may consent.  This ought not to be regarded as objectionable on the one
hand or on the other, insomuch as it comes to nothing, unless by the
mutual consent of the people to be deported, and the American voters,
through their Representatives in Congress.

"I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor
colonization.  And yet I wish to say there is an objection urged against
free Colored persons remaining in the Country which is largely
imaginary, if not sometimes malicious.

"It is insisted that their presence would injure and displace White
labor and White laborers.  If there ever could be a proper time for mere
catch arguments, that time surely is not now.  In times like the present
men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be
responsible through Time and in Eternity.

"Is it true, then, that Colored people can displace any more White labor
by being Free, than by remaining Slaves?  If they stay in their old
places, they jostle no White laborers; if they leave their old places,
they leave them open to White laborers.  Logically, there is neither
more nor less of it.

"Emancipation, even without deportation, would probably enhance the
wages of White labor, and, very surely would not reduce them.  Thus, the
customary amount of labor would still have to be performed; the freed
people would surely not do more than their old proportion of it and,
very probably, for a time would do less, leaving an increased part to
White laborers, bringing their labor into greater demand, and
consequently enhancing the wages of it.

"With deportation, even to a limited extent, enhanced wages to White
labor is mathematically certain.  Labor is like any other commodity in
the market-increase the demand for it and you increase the price of it.
Reduce the supply of Black labor by colonizing the Black laborer out of
the Country, and by precisely so much you increase the demand for and
wages of White labor.

"But it is dreaded that the freed people will swarm forth and cover the
whole Land!  Are they not already in the Land?  Will liberation make
them any more numerous?  Equally distributed among the Whites of the
whole Country, there would be but one Colored, in seven Whites.  Could
the one, in any way, greatly disturb the seven?

"There are many communities now, having more than one free Colored
person to seven Whites; and this, without any apparent consciousness of
evil from it.  The District of Columbia, and the States of Maryland and
Delaware, are all in this condition.  The District has more than one
free Colored to six Whites; and yet, in its frequent petitions to
Congress I believe it has never presented the presence of free Colored
persons as one of its grievances.

"But why should Emancipation South, send the freed people North? people
of any color, seldom run, unless there be something to run from.
Heretofore, Colored people, to some extent, have fled North from
bondage, and now, perhaps, from both bondage and destitution.  But if
gradual Emancipation and deportation be adopted, they will have neither
to flee from.

"Their old masters will give them wages at least until new laborers can
be procured; and the freed men, in turn, will gladly give their labor
for the wages, till new homes can be found for them, in congenial
climes, and with people of their own blood and race.

"This proposition can be trusted on the mutual interests involved.  And,
in any event, cannot the North decide for itself, whether to receive
them?

"Again, as practice proves more than theory, in any case, has there been
any irruption of Colored people Northward because of the abolishment of
Slavery in this District last Spring?  What I have said of the
proportion of free Colored persons to the Whites in the District is from
the census of 1860, having no reference to persons called Contrabands,
nor to those made free by the Act of Congress abolishing Slavery here.

"The plan consisting of these Articles is recommended, not but that a
restoration of the National authority would be accepted without its
adoption.

"Nor will the War, nor proceedings under the Proclamation of September
22, 1862, be stayed because of the recommendation of this plan.  Its
timely adoption, I doubt not, would bring restoration, and thereby stay
both.

"And, notwithstanding this plan, the recommendation that Congress
provides by law for compensating any State which may adopt Emancipation
before this plan shall have been acted upon, is hereby earnestly
renewed.  Such would be only an advance part of the plan, and the same
arguments apply to both.

"This plan is recommended as a means, not in exclusion of, but
additional to, all others, for restoring and preserving the National
authority throughout the Union.  The subject is presented exclusively in
its economical aspect.

"The plan would, I am confident, secure Peace more speedily, and
maintain it more permanently, than can be done by force alone; while all
it would cost, considering amounts, and manner of payment, and times of
payment, would be easier paid than will be the additional cost of the
War, if we rely solely upon force.  It is much, very much, that it would
cost no blood at all.

"The plan is proposed as permanent Constitutional Law.  It cannot become
such without the concurrence of, first, two-thirds of Congress, and
afterward, three-fourths of the Slave States.  The requisite
three-fourths of the States will necessarily include seven of the Slave
States.  Their concurrence, if obtained, will give assurance of their
severally adopting Emancipation at no very distant day upon the new
Constitutional terms.  This assurance would end the struggle now and
save the Union forever.

"I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper addressed
to the Congress of the Nation by the Chief Magistrate of the Nation.
Nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor that many of you
have more experience than I in the conduct of public affairs.  Yet I
trust that in view of the great responsibility resting upon me, you will
perceive no want of respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may
seem to display.

"Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten
the War, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood?  Is it
doubted that it would restore the National authority and National
prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely?  Is it doubted that we
here--Congress and Executive--can secure its adoption; will not the good
people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us?  Can we, can
they, by any other means so certainly or so speedily assure these vital
objects; we can succeed only by concert.

"It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better?' but,'Can we all do better?'
Object whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs, 'Can we do
better?  The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present.  The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise
with the occasion.  As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act
anew.  We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our
Country.

"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.  We, of this Congress and
this Administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves.  No
personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of
us.  The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor
or dishonor, to the latest generation.

"We say we are for the Union.  The World will not forget that we say
this.  We know how to save the Union.

"The World knows we do know how to save it.  We even we here--hold the
power, and bear the responsibility.

"In giving Freedom to the Slave, we assure Freedom to the Free-Honorable
alike in what we give and what we preserve.  We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last, best hope of Earth.  Other means may succeed;
this could not fail.  The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way
which, if followed, the World would forever applaud, and God must
forever bless.

                              "ABRAHAM LINCOLN."


The popular Branch of Congress responded with heartiness to what Mr.
Lincoln had done.  On December 11, 1862, resolutions were offered by Mr.
Yeaman in the House of Representatives, as follows:

"Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate Concurring), That
the Proclamation of the President of the United States, of date the 22d
of September, 1862, is not warranted by the Constitution.

"Resolved, That the policy of Emancipation as indicated in that
Proclamation, is not calculated to hasten the restoration of Peace, was
not well chosen as a War measure, and is an assumption of power
dangerous to the rights of citizens and to the perpetuity of a Free
People."

These resolutions were laid on the table by 95 yeas to 47 nays--the yeas
all Republicans, save three, and the nays all Democrats save five.

On December 15, 1862, Mr. S. C. Fessenden, of Maine, offered resolutions
to the House, in these words:

"Resolved, That the Proclamation of the President of the United States,
of the date of 22d September, 1862, is warranted by the Constitution.

"Resolved, That the policy of Emancipation, as indicated in that
Proclamation, is well adapted to hasten the restoration of Peace, was
well chosen as a War measure, and is an exercise of power with proper
regard for the rights of the States, and the perpetuity of Free
Government."

These resolutions were adopted by 78 yeas to 52 nays--the yeas all
Republicans, save two, and the nays all Democrats, save seven.

The Proclamation of September 22d, 1862, was very generally endorsed and
upheld by the People at large; and, in accordance with its promise, it
was followed at the appointed time, January 1st, 1863, by the
supplemental Proclamation specifically Emancipating the Slaves in the
rebellious parts of the United States--in the following terms:

"WHEREAS, On the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a Proclamation was issued by
the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the
following, to wit:

"'That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight 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 States, shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever Free; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the Military and Naval Authority thereof, will 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 First 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 States 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.'

"Now, therefore, I ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by
virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Navy of the United 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 first
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,
Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafouche, 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 Ann,
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 Government of the United States, including the
Military and Naval authorities thereof; will recognize and maintain the
Freedom of said Persons.

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be Free, to abstain
from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to
them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for
reasonable wages.

"And I further declare and make known that such Persons, of suitable
condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States
to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man
vessels of all sorts in said service.

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
warranted by the Constitution upon Military necessity, I invoke the
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Washington, this First day of January, in the year
of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

"By the President:
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"WILLIAM H.  SEWARD,  Secretary of State."




                              CHAPTER XIX.

                           HISTORICAL REVIEW.


Let us now refresh recollection by glancing backward over the history of
our Country, and we shall see, as recorded in these pages, that, from
the first, there existed in this Nation a class of individuals greedily
ambitious of power and determined to secure and maintain control of this
Government; that they left unturned no stone which would contribute to
the fostering and to the extension of African Slavery; that, hand in
hand with African Slavery--and as a natural corollary to it--they
advocated Free Trade as a means of degrading Free White labor to the
level of Black Slave labor, and thus increasing their own power; that
from the first, ever taking advantage of the general necessities of the
Union, they arrogantly demanded and received from a brow-beaten People,
concession after concession, and compromise after compromise; that every
possible pretext and occasion was seized by them to increase,
consolidate, and secure their power, and to extend the territorial
limits over which their peculiar Pro-Slavery and Pro-Free-Trade
doctrines prevailed; and that their nature was so exacting, and their
greed so rapacious, that it was impossible ever to satisfy them.

Nor were they burdened with over-much of that high sense of honor--a
quality of which they often vaunted themselves--which impelled others to
stand by their agreements.  It seemed as though they considered the most
sacred promises and covenants of no account, and made only to be
trampled upon, when in the way of their Moloch.

We remember the bitter Slavery agitation in Congress over the admission
of the State of Missouri, and how it eventuated in the Missouri
Compromise.  That compromise, we have seen, they afterward trod upon,
and broke, with as little compunction as they would have stepped upon
and crushed a toad.

They felt their own growing power, and gloried in their strength and
arrogance; and Northern timidity became a scoff and by-word in their
mouths.

The fact is, that from its very conception, as well as birth, they hated
and opposed the Union, because they disliked a Republican and preferred
a Monarchical form of Government.  Their very inability to prevent the
consummation of that Union, imbittered them.  Hence their determination
to seize every possible occasion and pretext afterward to destroy it,
believing, as they doubtless did, that upon the crumbled and mouldering
ruins of a dissevered Union and ruptured Republic, Monarchical ideas
might the more easily take root and grow.  But experience had already
taught them that it would be long before their real object could even be
covertly hinted at, and that in the meantime it must be kept out of
sight by the agitation of other political issues.  The formulation and
promulgation therefore, by Jefferson, in the Kentucky Resolutions of
1798, and by Madison, in the Virginia Resolutions of 1799, of the
doctrine of States Rights already referred to, was a perfect "God-send"
to these men.  For it not only enabled them to keep from public view and
knowledge their ultimate aim and purpose, but constituted the whip which
they thenceforth everlastingly flourished and cracked over the shrinking
heads of other and more patriotic people--the whip with which, through
the litter of their broken promises, they ruthlessly rode into, and, for
so long a period of years held on to, supreme power and place in the
Land.

Including within the scope of States Rights, the threats of
Nullification, Disunion and Secession--ideas abhorrent to the Patriot's
mind--small wonder is it that, in those days, every fresh demand made by
these political autocrats was tremblingly acceded to, until patience and
concession almost utterly exhausted themselves.

Originally disturbing only South Carolina and Georgia to any extent,
these ambitious men, who believed in anything rather than a Republic,
and who were determined to destroy the Union, gradually spread the
spirit of jealousy and discontent into other States of the South; their
immediate object being to bring the Southern States into the closest
possible relations the one with the other; to inspire them all with
common sympathies and purposes; to compact and solidify them, so that in
all coming movements against the other States of the Union, they might
move with proportionately increased power, and force, and effect,
because of such unity of aim and strength.

This spirit of Southern discontent, and jealousy of the Northern States,
was, as we have seen, artfully fanned by the Conspirators, in heated
discussions over the Tariff Acts of 1824, and 1828, and 1832, until, by
the latter date, the people of the Cotton-States were almost frantic,
and ready to fight over their imaginary grievances.  Then it was that
the Conspirators thought the time had come, for which they had so long
and so earnestly prayed and worked, when the cotton Sampson should wind
his strong arms around the pillars of the Constitution and pull down the
great Temple of our Union--that they might rear upon its site another
and a stronger edifice, dedicated not to Freedom, but to Free-Trade and
to other false gods.

South Carolina was to lead off, and the other Cotton States would
follow.  South Carolina did lead off--but the other Cotton-States did
not follow.

It has been shown in these pages how South Carolina declared the Tariff
Acts aforesaid, null and void, armed herself to resist force, and
declared that any attempt of the general Government to enforce those
Acts would cause her to withdraw from the Union.  But Jackson as we know
throttled the treason with so firm a grip that Nullification and
Secession and Disunion were at once paralyzed.

The concessions to the domineering South, in Clay's Compromise Tariff of
1833, let the Conspirators down easily, so to speak; and they pretended
to be satisfied.  But they were satisfied only as are the thirsty sands
of Africa with the passing shower.

The Conspirators had, however, after all, made substantial gains.  They
had established a precedent for an attempt to secede.  That was
something.  They had demonstrated that a single Southern State could
stand up, armed and threatening, strutting, blustering, and bullying,
and at least make faces at the general Government without suffering any
very dreadful consequences.  That was still more.

They had also ascertained that, by adopting such a course, a single
Southern State could force concessions from the fears of the rest of the
United States.  That was worth knowing, because the time might come,
when it might be desirable not only for one but for all the Southern
States to secede upon some other pretext, and when it would be awkward,
and would interfere with the Disunion programme, to have the other
States either offer or make concessions.

They had also learned the valuable lesson that the single issue of
Free-Trade was not sufficiently strong of itself to unite all the
Southern States in a determination to secede, and thus dissolve the
Union.  They saw they must agitate some other issue to unify the South
more thoroughly and justify Disunion.  On looking over the whole field
they concluded that the Slavery question would best answer their
purpose, and they adopted it.

It was doubtless a full knowledge of the fact that they had adopted it,
that led Jackson to make the declaration, heretofore in these pages
given, which has been termed "prophetic."  At any rate, thenceforth the
programme of the Conspirators was to agitate the Slavery question in all
ways possible, so as to increase, extend and solidify the influence and
strength of the Slave power; strain the bonds uniting them with the Free
States; and weaken the Free States by dividing them upon the question.
At the same time the Free-Trade question was to be pressed forward to a
triumphal issue, so that the South might be enriched and strengthened,
and the North impoverished and weakened, by the result.

That was their programme, in the rough, and it was relentlessly adhered
to.  Free-Trade and Slavery by turns, if not together, from that time
onward, were ever at the front, agitating our People both North and
South, and not only consolidating the Southern States on those lines, as
the Conspirators designed, but also serving ultimately to consolidate,
to some extent--in a manner quite unlooked for by the Conspirators
--Northern sentiment, on the opposite lines of Protection and Freedom.

The Compromise Tariff Act of 1833--which Clay was weak enough to
concede, and even stout old Jackson to permit to become law without his
signature--gave to the Conspirators great joy for years afterward, as
they witnessed the distress and disaster brought by it to Northern homes
and incomes--not distress and disaster alone, but absolute and
apparently irreparable ruin.

The reaction occasioned by this widespread ruin having brought the Whigs
into power, led to the enactment of the Protective-Tariff of 1842 and
--to the chagrin of the Conspirators--industrial prosperity and plenty to
the Free North again ensued.

Even as Cain hated his brother Abel because his sacrifices were
acceptable in the sight of God, while his own were not, so the Southern
Conspirators, and other Slave-owners also, had, by this time, come to
hate the Northern free-thinking, free-acting, freedom-loving mechanic
and laboring man, because the very fact and existence of his Godgiven
Freedom and higher-resulting civilization was a powerful and perpetual
protest against the--abounding iniquities and degradations of Slavery as
practiced by themselves.

Hence, by trickery, by cajoling the People With his, and their own,
assurances that he was in favor of Protection--they secured the election
in 1844 of a Free-Trade President, the consequent repeal of the
Protective-Tariff of 1842--which had repaired the dreadful mischief
wrought by the Compromise Act of 1833--and the enactment of the infamous
Free-Trade Tariff of 1846, which blasted the manufacturing and farming
and trade industries of the Country again, as with fire.

The discovery of the great gold fields of California, and the enormous
amount of the precious metal poured by her for many succeeding years
into the lap of the Nation, alone averted what otherwise would
inevitably have been total ruin.  As it was, in 1860, the National
credit had sunk to a lower point than ever before in all its history.
It was confessedly bankrupt, and ruin stalked abroad throughout the
United States.

But while, with rapid pen, the carrying out of that part of the Southern
Conspirators' Disunion programme which related to Free-Trade, is thus
brought again to mind, the other part of that programme, which related
to Slavery, must not be neglected or overlooked.  On this question they
had determined, as we have seen, to agitate without ceasing--having in
view, primarily, as already hinted, the extension of Slave territory and
the resulting increase of Slave power in the Land; and, ulteriorly, the
solidifying of that power, and Disunion of the Republic, with a view to
its conversion into an Oligarchy, if not a Monarchy.

The bitterness of the struggle over the admission of Missouri as a Slave
State in 1820, under the Missouri Compromise, was to be revived by the
Conspirators, at the earliest possible moment.

Accordingly in 1836--only three years after the failure of Nullification
in South Carolina, the Territory, of Arkansas was forced in as a Slave
State, and simultaneously the Slave-owning henchmen of the Conspirators,
previously settled there for the purpose, proclaimed the secession from
Mexico, and independence, of Texas.  This was quickly followed, in 1844,
by Calhoun's hastily negotiated treaty of annexation with Texas; its
miscarriage in the Senate; and the Act of March 2, 1845--with its sham
compromise--consenting to the admission of Texas to the Union of States.

Then came the War with Mexico; the attempt by means of the Wilmot
proviso to check the growing territorial-greed and rapacity of the
Slave-power; and the acquisition by the United States, of California and
New Mexico, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which brought
Peace.

Then occurred the agitation over the organization of  Territorial
governments for Oregon, California, and New Mexico, and the strong
effort to extend to the Pacific Ocean the Missouri-Compromise line of
36  30', and to extend to all future Territorial organizations the
principles of that compromise.

Then came the struggle in 1850, over the admission of California as a
State, and New Mexico and Utah to Territorial organization--ending in
the passage of Clay's Compromise measures of 1850.

Yet still the Southern Conspirators--whose forces, both in Congress and
out, were now well-disciplined, compacted, solidified, experienced, and
bigotedly enthusiastic and overbearing--were not satisfied.  It was not
their intention to be satisfied with anything less than the destruction
of the Union and of our Republican form of Government.  The trouble was
only beginning, and, so far, almost everything had progressed to their
liking.  The work must proceed.

In 1852-3 they commenced the Kansas-Nebraska agitation; and, what with
their incessant political and colonizing movements in those Territories;
the frequent and dreadful atrocities committed by their tools, the
Border-ruffians; the incessant turmoil created by cruelties to their
Fugitive-slaves; their persistent efforts to change the Supreme Court to
their notions; these-with the decision and opinion of the Supreme Court
in the Dred Scott case--together worked the Slavery question up to a
dangerous degree of heat, by the year 1858.

And, by 1860--when the people of the Free States, grown sick unto death
of the rule of the Slave-power in the General Government, arose in their
political might, and shook off this "Old Man of the Sea," electing,
beyond cavil and by the Constitutional mode, to the Presidential office,
a man who thoroughly represented in himself their conscience, on the one
hand, which instinctively revolted against human Slavery as a wrong
committed against the laws of God, and their sense of justice and equity
on the other, which would not lightly overlook, or interfere with vested
rights under the Constitution and the laws of man--the Conspirators had
reached the point at which they had been aiming ever since that failure
in 1832 of their first attempt at Disunion, in South Carolina.

They had now succeeded in irritating both the Free and the Slave-holding
Sections of our Country against each other, to an almost unbearable
point; had solidified the Southern States on the Slavery and Free-Trade
questions; and at last--the machinations of these same Conspirators
having resulted in a split in the Democratic Party, and the election of
the Republican candidate to the Presidency, as the embodiment of the
preponderating National belief in Freedom and equality to all before the
Law, with Protection to both Labor and Capital--they also had the
pretext for which they had both been praying and scheming and preparing
all those long, long years--they, and some of their fathers before them.

It cannot be too often repeated that to secure a Monarchy, or at least
an Oligarchy, over which the leading Conspirators should rule for life
--whether that Monarchy or that Oligarchy should comprise the States of
the South by themselves, or all the States on a new basis of Union--was
the great ultimate aim of the Conspirators; and this could be secured
only by first disrupting the then existing Republican Union of
Republican States.

The doctrine of the right of Secession had now long been taught, and had
become a part of the Southern Slave-holders' Democratic creed, as fully
as had the desirability of Slavery and Free-Trade--and even many of the
Northern Democrats, and some Republicans as well, were not much inclined
to dispute, although they cared not to canvass, the point.

The programme of action was therefore much the same as had been laid
down in the first attempt in 1832:--first South Carolina would secede
and declare her independence; then the other Slave States in quick
succession would do likewise; then a new Constitution for a solid
Southern Union; then, if necessary, a brief War to cement it--which
would end, of course, in the independence of the South at least, but
more probably in the utter subjugation and humiliation of the Free
States.

When the time should come, during, or after this War--as come, in their
belief, it would--for a change in the form of Government, then they
could seize the first favorable occasion and change it.  At present,
however, the cry must be for "independence."  That accomplished, the
rest would be easy.  And until that independence was accomplished, no
terms of any sort, no settlement of any kind, were either to be proposed
or accepted by them.

These were their dreams, their ambitions, their plans; and the tenacious
courage with which they stuck to them "through thick and thin," through
victory and disaster, were worthy of a better cause.

While, therefore, the pretexts for Secession were "Slavery" and
"Free-Trade"--both of which were alleged to be jeopardized in the
election and inauguration of Abraham Lincoln--yet, no sooner had
hostilities commenced between the seceding States and the Union, than
they declared to the World that their fight was not for Slavery, but for
Independence.

They dared not acknowledge to the World that they fought for Slavery,
lest the sympathies of the World should be against them.  But it was
well understood by the Southern masses, as well as the other people of
the Union, that both Slavery and Free-Trade were involved in the fight
--as much as independence, and the consequent downfall of the Union.

President Lincoln, however, had made up his mind to do all he properly
could to placate the South.  None knew better than he, the history of
this Secession movement, as herein described.  None knew better than he,
the fell purpose and spirit of the Conspirators.  Yet still, his kindly
heart refused to believe that the madness of the Southern leaders was so
frenzied, and their hatred of Free men, Free labor, and Free
institutions, so implacable, that they would wilfully refuse to listen
to reason and ever insist on absolutely inadmissible terms of
reconciliation.

From the very beginning of his Administration, he did all that was
possible to mollify their resentment and calm their real or pretended
fears.  Nor was this from any dread or doubt as to what the outcome of
an armed Conflict would be; for, in his speech at Cincinnati, in the
Autumn of 1859, he had said, while addressing himself to Kentuckians and
other Southern men: "Why, gentlemen, I think you are as gallant and as
brave men as live; that you can fight as bravely in a good cause, man
for man, as any other people living; that you have shown yourselves
capable of this upon various occasions; but man for man, you are not
better than we are, and there are not so many of you as there are of us.
You will never make much of a hand at whipping us.  If we were fewer in
numbers than you, I think that you could whip us; if we were equal it
would likely be a drawn battle; but being inferior in numbers, you will
make nothing by attempting to master us."

And early in 1860, in his famous New York Cooper Institute speech he had
said "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let
us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."  He plainly
believed to the end, that "right makes might;" and he believed in the
power of numbers--as also did Napoleon, if we may judge from his famous
declaration that "The God of battles is always on the side of the
heaviest battalions."  Yet, so believing, President Lincoln exerted
himself in all possible ways to mollify the South. His assurances,
however, were far from satisfying the Conspirators.  They never had been
satisfied with anything in the shape of concession.  They never would
be.  They had been dissatisfied with and had broken all the compacts and
compromises, and had spit upon all the concessions, of the past; and
nothing would now satisfy them, short of the impossible.

They were not satisfied now with Lincoln's promise that the Government
would not assail them--organized as, by this time, they were into a
so-called Southern "Confederacy" of States--and they proceeded accordingly
to assail that Government which would not assail them.  They opened fire
on Fort Sumter.

This was done, as has duly appeared, in the hope that the shedding of
blood would not only draw the States of the Southern Confederacy more
closely together in their common cause, and prevent the return of any of
them to their old allegiance, but also to so influence the wavering
allegiance to the Union, of the Border States, as to strengthen that
Confederacy and equivalently weaken that Union, by their Secession.

Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, of the Border States
that were wavering, were thus gathered into the Confederate fold, by
this policy of blood-spilling--carried bodily thither, by a desperate
and frenzied minority, against the wishes of a patriotic majority.

Virginia, especially, was a great accession to the Rebel cause.  She
brought to it the prestige of her great name.  To secure the active
cooperation of "staid old Virginia," "the Mother of Statesmen," in the
struggle, was, in the estimation of the Rebels, an assurance of victory
to their cause.  And the Secession of Virginia for a time had a
depressing influence upon the friends of the Union everywhere.

The refusal of West Virginia to go with the rest of the State into
Rebellion, was, to be sure, some consolation; and the checkmating of the
Conspirators' designs to secure to the Confederacy the States of
Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, helped the confidence of Union men.  In
fact, as long as the National Capital was secure, it was felt that the
Union was still safe.

But while the Confederacy, by the firing upon Fort Sumter, and thus
assailing that Government which Lincoln had promised would not assail
the Rebels, had gained much in securing the aid of the States mentioned,
yet the Union Cause, by that very act, had gained more.  For the echoes
of the Rebel guns of Fort Moultrie were the signal for such an uprising
of the Patriots of the North and West and Middle States, as, for the
moment, struck awe to the hearts of Traitors and inspired with courage
and hopefulness the hearts of Union men throughout the Land.

Moreover it put the Rebels in their proper attitude, in the eyes of the
World--as the first aggressors--and thus deprived them, to a certain
extent, of that moral support from the outside which flows from
sympathy.

Those echoes were the signal, not only of that call to arms which led to
such an uprising, but for the simultaneous calling together of the
Thirty-seventh Congress of the United States in Extra Session--the
Congress whose measures ultimately enabled President Lincoln and the
Union Armies to subdue the Rebellion and save the Union--the Congress
whose wise and patriotic deliberations resulted in the raising of those
gigantic Armies and Navies, and in supplying the unlimited means,
through the Tariff and National Bank Systems and otherwise, by which
those tremendous Forces could be both created and effectively operated
--the Congress which cooperated with President Lincoln and those Forces in
preparing the way for the destruction of the very corner-stone of the
Confederacy, Slavery itself.




                              CHAPTER XX.

                  LINCOLN'S TROUBLES AND TEMPTATIONS.

The Rebels themselves, as has already been noted, by the employment of
their Slaves in the construction of earthworks and other fortifications,
and even in battle, at Bull Run and elsewhere, against the Union Forces,
brought the Thirty-seventh Congress, as well as the Military Commanders,
and the President, to an early consideration of the Slavery question.
But it was none the less a question to be treated with the utmost
delicacy.

The Union men, as well as the Secession-sympathizers, of Kentucky and
Tennessee and Missouri and Maryland, largely believed in Slavery, or at
least were averse to any interference with it.  These, would not see
that the right to destroy that unholy Institution could pertain to any
authority, or be justified by any exigency; much less that, as held by
some authorities, its existence ceased at the moment when its hands, or
those of the State in which it had existed, were used to assail the
General Government.

They looked with especial suspicion and distrust upon the guarded
utterances of the President upon all questions touching the future of
the Colored Race.

     [At Faneuil Hall, Edward Everett is reported to have said, in
     October of 1864:

     "It is very doubtful whether any act of the Government of the
     United States was necessary to liberate the Slaves in a State 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; certainly, so far as concerns the duty
     of the United States to recognize it, or to refrain from
     interfering with it.

     "Not being founded on the Law of Nature, and resting solely on
     positive Local Law--and that, not of the United States--as soon as
     it becomes either the motive or pretext of an unjust War against
     the Union--an efficient instrument in the hands of the Rebels for
     carrying on the War--source of Military strength to the Rebellion,
     and of danger to the Government at home and abroad, with the
     additional certainty that, in any event but its abandonment, it
     will continue, in all future time to 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 contradiction in terms.  It would be
     two recognize 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 can be admitted; and any citizen of the
     United States, from thee President down, who should, by any overt
     act, recognize the duty of a Slave to obey a Rebel master in a
     hostile operation, would himself be giving aid and comfort to the
     Enemy."]

They believed that when Fremont issued the General Order-heretofore
given in full--in which that General declared that "The property, real
and personal, of all persons, in the State of Missouri, who shall take
up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to
have taken an active part with their enemies in the field, is declared
to be confiscated to the public use, and their Slaves, if any they have,
are hereby declared Free men," it must have been with the concurrence,
if not at the suggestion, of the President; and, when the President
subsequently, September 11,1861, made an open Order directing that this
clause of Fremont's General Order, or proclamation, should be "so
modified, held, and construed, as to conform to, and not to transcend,
the provisions on the same subject contained in the Act of Congress
entitled 'An Act to Confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary
Purposes,' approved August 6, 1861," they still were not satisfied.

     [The sections of the above Act, bearing upon the matter, are the
     first and fourth, which are in these words:

     "That if, during the present or any future insurrection against the
     Government of the United States, after the President of the United
     States shall have declared, by proclamation, that the laws of the
     United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by
     combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course
     of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by
     law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent, attorney, or
     employee, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give, any property of
     whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the
     same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding,
     abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws,
     or any persons engaged therein; or if any person or persons, being
     the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or
     employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as
     aforesaid, all such property is hereby declared to be lawful
     subject of prize and capture wherever found; and it shall be the
     duty of the President of the United States to cause the same to be
     seized, confiscated and condemned."

                     *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

     "SEC. 4.  That whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection
     against the Government of the United States, any person claimed to
     be held to Labor or Service under the law of any State shall be
     required or permitted by the person to whom such Labor or Service
     is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of such person, to
     take up arms against the United States; or shall be required or
     permitted by the person to whom such Labor or Service is claimed to
     be due, or his lawful agent, to work or to be employed in or upon
     any fort, navy-yard, dock, armory, ship, entrenchment, or in any
     Military or Naval service whatsoever, against the Government and
     lawful authority of the United States, then, and in every such
     case, the person to whom such Labor or Service is claimed to be
     due, shall forfeit his claim to such Labor, any law of the State or
     of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding.  And whenever
     thereafter the person claiming such Labor or Service shall seek to
     enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such
     claim that the person whose Service or Labor is claimed had been
     employed in hostile service against the Government of the United
     States, contrary to the provisions of this act."

It seemed as impossible to satisfy these Border-State men as it had been
to satisfy the Rebels themselves.

The Act of Congress, to which President Lincoln referred
in his Order modifying Fremont's proclamation, had itself been opposed
by them, under the lead of their most influential Representative and
spokesman, Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, in its passage through that
Body.  It did not satisfy them.

Neither had they been satisfied, when, within one year and four days
after "Slavery opened its batteries of Treason, upon Fort Sumter," that
National curse and shame was banished from the Nation's Capital by
Congressional enactment.

They were not satisfied even with Mr. Lincoln's conservative suggestions
embodied in the Supplemental Act.

Nor were they satisfied with the General Instructions, of October 14,
1861, from the War Department to its Generals, touching the employment
of Fugitive Slaves within the Union Lines, and the assurance of just
compensation to loyal masters, therein contained, although all avoidable
interference with the Institution was therein reprobated.

Nothing satisfied them.  It was indeed one of the most curious of the
many phenomena of the War of the Rebellion, that when--as at the end of
1861--it had become evident, as Secretary Cameron held, that it "would
be National suicide" to leave the Rebels in "peaceful and secure
possession of Slave Property, more valuable and efficient to them for
War, than forage, cotton, and Military stores," and that the Slaves
coming within our lines could not "be held by the Government as Slaves,"
and should not be held as prisoners of War--still the loyal people of
these Border-States, could not bring themselves to save that Union,
which they professed to love, by legislation on this tender subject.

On the contrary, they opposed all legislation looking to any
interference with such Slave property.  Nothing that was proposed by Mr.
Lincoln, or any other, on this subject, could satisfy them.

Congress enacted a law, approved March 13, 1862, embracing an additional
Article of War, which prohibited all officers "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
prescribed that "Any officer who shall be found guilty by Court-Martial
of violating this Article shall be dismissed from the Service." In both
Houses, the loyal Border-State Representatives spoke and voted against
its passage.

One week previously (March 6, 1862), President Lincoln, in an admirable
Message, hitherto herein given at length, found himself driven to broach
to Congress the subject of Emancipation.  He had, in his First Annual
Message (December, 1861), declared that "the Union must be preserved;
and hence all indispensable means must be employed;" but now, as a part
of the War Policy, he proposed to Congress the adoption of a Joint
Resolution declaring "That the United States ought to cooperate with any
State which may adopt gradual abolishment of Slavery, giving to such
State, pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to
compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such
change of System."

It was high time, he thought, that the idea of a gradual, compensated
Emancipation, should begin to occupy the minds of those interested, "so
that," to use his own words, "they may begin to consider whether to
accept or reject it," should Congress approve the suggestion.

Congress did approve, and adopt, the Joint-Resolution, as we know
--despite the opposition from the loyal element of the Border States--an
opposition made in the teeth of their concession that Mr. Lincoln, in
recommending its adoption, was "solely moved by a high patriotism and
sincere devotion to the glory of his Country."

But, consistently with their usual course, they went to the House of
Representatives, fresh from the Presidential presence, and, with their
ears still ringing with the common-sense utterances of the President,
half of them voted against the Resolution, while the other half
refrained from voting at all.  And their opposition to this wise and
moderate proposition was mainly based upon the idea that it carried with
it a threat--a covert threat.

It certainly was a warning, taking it in connection with the balance of
the Message, but a very wise and timely one.

These loyal Border-State men, however, could not see its wisdom, and at
a full meeting held upon the subject decided to oppose it, as they
afterward did.  Its conciliatory spirit they could not comprehend; the
kindly, temperate warning, they would not heed.  The most moderate of
them all,--[Mr. Crittenden of Kentucky.]--in the most moderate of his
utterances, could not bring himself to the belief that this Resolution
was "a measure exactly suited to the times."

     [And such was the fatuity existing among the Slave-holders of the
     Border States, that not one of those Slave States had wisdom enough
     to take the liberal offer thus made by the General Government, of
     compensation.  They afterward found their Slaves freed without
     compensation.]

So, also, one month later, (April 11, 1862), when the Senate Bill
proposing Emancipation in the District of Columbia, was before the
House, the same spokesman and leader of the loyal Border-State men
opposed it strenuously as not being suited to the times.  For, he
persuasively protested: "I do not say that you have not the power; but
would not that power be, at such a time as this, most unwisely and
indiscreetly exercised.  That is the point.  Of all the times when an
attempt was ever made to carry this measure, is not this the most
inauspicious?  Is it not a time when the measure is most likely to
produce danger and mischief to the Country at large?  So it seems to
me."

It was not now, nor would it ever be, the time, to pass this, or any
other measure, touching the Institution of Slavery, likely to benefit
that Union to which these men professed such love and loyalty.

Their opposition, however, to the march of events, was of little avail
--even when backed, as was almost invariably the case, by the other
Democratic votes from the Free States.  The opposition was obstructive,
but not effectual.  For this reason it was perhaps the more irritating
to the Republicans, who were anxious to put Slavery where their great
leader, Mr. Lincoln, had long before said it should be placed--"in
course of ultimate extinction."

This very irritation, however, only served to press such Anti-Slavery
Measures more rapidly forward.  By the 19th of June, 1862, a Bill "to
secure Freedom to all persons within the Territories of the United
States"--after a more strenuous fight against it than ever, on the part
of Loyal and Copperhead Democrats, both from the Border and Free
States,--had passed Congress, and been approved by President Lincoln.
It provided, in just so many words, "That, from and after the passage of
this Act, there shall be neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude in
any of the Territories of the United States now existing, or which may
at any time hereafter be formed or acquired by the United States,
otherwise than in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted."

Here, then, at last, was the great end and aim, with which Mr. Lincoln
and the Republican Party started out, accomplished.  To repeat his
phrase, Slavery was certainly now in course of ultimate extinction.

But since that doctrine had been first enunciated by Mr. Lincoln, events
had changed the aspect of things.  War had broken out, and the Slaves of
those engaged in armed Rebellion against the authority of the United
States Government, had been actually employed, as we have seen, on Rebel
works and fortifications whose guns were trailed upon the Armies of the
Union.

And now, the question of Slavery had ceased to be simply whether it
should be put in course of ultimate extinction, but whether, as a War
Measure--as a means of weakening the Enemy and strengthening the Union
--the time had not already come to extinguish it, so far, at least, as the
Slaves of those participating in the Rebellion, were concerned.

Congress, as has been heretofore noted, had already long and heatedly
debated various propositions referring to Slavery and African
Colonization, and had enacted such of them as, in its wisdom, were
considered necessary; and was now entering a further stormy period of
contention upon various other projects touching the Abolition of the
Fugitive Slave Laws, the Confiscation of Rebel Property, and the
Emancipation of Slaves--all of which, of course, had been, and would be,
vehemently assailed by the loyal Border-States men and their Free-State
Democratic allies.

This contention proceeded largely upon the lines of construction of that
clause in the Constitution of the United States and its Amendments,
which provides that no person shall be deprived of Life, Liberty, or
Property, without due process of Law, etc.  The one side holding that,
since the beginning of our Government, Slaves had been, under this
clause, Unconstitutionally deprived of their Liberty; the other side
holding that Slaves being "property," it would be Unconstitutional under
the same clause, to deprive the Slave-owner of his Slave property.

Mr. Crittenden, the leader of the loyal Border-States men in Congress,
was at this time especially eloquent on this latter view of the
Constitution.  In his speech of April 23, 1862, in the House of
Representatives, he even undertook to defend American Slavery under the
shield of English Liberty!

Said he: "It is necessary for the prosperity of any Government, for
peace and harmony, that every man who acquires property shall feel that
he shall be protected in the enjoyment of it, and in his right to hold
it.  It elevates the man; it gives him a feeling of dignity.  It is the
great old English doctrine of Liberty.  Said Lord Mansfield, the rain
may beat against the cabin of an Englishman, the snow may penetrate it,
but the King dare not enter it without the consent of its owner.  That
is the true English spirit.  It is the source of England's power."

And again: "The idea of property is deeply seated in our minds.  By the
English Law and by the American Law you have the right to take the life
of any man who attempts, by violence, to take your property from you.
So far does the Spirit of these Laws go.  Let us not break down this
idea of property.  It is the animating spirit of the Country.  Indeed it
is the Spirit of Liberty and Freedom."

There was at this time, a growing belief in the minds of these loyal
Border-States men, that this question of Slavery-abolition was reaching
a crisis.  They saw "the handwriting on the wall," but left no stone
unturned to prevent, or at least to avert for a time, the coming
catastrophe.  They egged Congress, in the language of the distinguished
Kentuckian, to "Let these unnecessary measures alone, for the present;"
and, as to the President, they now, not only volunteered in his defense,
against the attacks of others, but strove also to capture him by their
arch flatteries.

"Sir,"--said Mr. Crittenden, in one of his most eloquent bursts, in the
House of Representatives,--"it is not my duty, perhaps, to defend the
President of the United States.  * * * I voted against Mr. Lincoln, and
opposed him honestly and sincerely; but Mr. Lincoln has won me to his
side.  There is a niche in the Temple of Fame, a niche near to
Washington, which should be occupied by the statue of him who shall,
save this Country.  Mr. Lincoln has a mighty destiny.  It is for him, if
he will, to step into that niche.  It is for him to be but President of
the People of the United States, and there will his statue be.  But, if
he choose to be, in these times, a mere sectarian and a party man, that
niche will be reserved for some future and better Patriot.  It is in his
power to occupy a place next Washington,--the Founder, and the
Preserver, side by side.  Sir, Mr. Lincoln is no coward.  His not doing
what the Constitution forbade him to do, is no proof of his cowardice."

On the other hand, Owen Lovejoy, the fiery Abolitionist, the very next
day after the above remarks of Mr. Crittenden were delivered in the
House, made a great speech in reply, taking the position that "either
Slavery, or the Republic, must perish; and the question for us to decide
is, which shall it be?"

He declared to the House: "You cannot put down the rebellion and restore
the Union, without destroying Slavery."  He quoted the sublime language
of Curran touching the Spirit of the British Law, which consecrates the
soil of Britain to the genius of Universal Emancipation,

     [In these words:

     "I speak in the Spirit of the British law, which makes Liberty
     commensurate with, and inseparable from, the British soil; which
     proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner the moment he sets
     his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is
     holy, and consecrated by the genius Of UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION.

     "No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no
     matter what complexion incompatible with Freedom, an Indian or an
     African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous
     battle his Liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what
     solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of Slavery; the
     first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and
     the god sink together in the dust; his Soul walks abroad in her own
     majesty; his Body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that
     burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and
     disenthralled by the irresistible genius of UNIVERSAL
     EMANCIPATION."]

And Cowper's verse, wherein the poet says:

     "Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
     Receive our air, that moment they are Free,"

--and, after expressing his solicitude to have this true of America, as
it already was true of the District of Columbia, he proceeded to say:

"The gentleman from Kentucky says he has a niche for Abraham Lincoln.
Where is it?  He pointed upward!  But, Sir, should the President follow
the counsels of that gentleman, and become the defender and perpetuator
of human Slavery, he should point downward to some dungeon in the Temple
of Moloch, who feeds on human blood and is surrounded with fires, where
are forged manacles and chains for human limbs--in the crypts and
recesses of whose Temple, woman is scourged, and man tortured, and
outside whose walls are lying dogs, gorged with human flesh, as Byron
describes them stretched around Stamboul.  That is a suitable place for
the statue of one who would defend and perpetuate human Slavery."

And then--after saying that "the friends of American Slavery need not
beslime the President with their praise.  He is an Anti-Slavery man.  He
hates human Bondage "--the orator added these glowing words:

"I, too, have a niche for Abraham Lincoln; but it is in Freedom's Holy
Fane, and not in the blood-besmeared Temple of human Bondage; not
surrounded by Slaves, fetters and chains, but with the symbols of
Freedom; not dark with Bondage, but radiant with the light of Liberty.
In that niche he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, with shattered
fetters and broken chains and slave-whips beneath his feet.  If Abraham
Lincoln pursues the path, evidently pointed out for him in the
providence of God, as I believe he will, then he will occupy the proud
position I have indicated.  That is a fame worth living for; ay, more,
that is a fame worth dying for, though that death led through the blood
of Gethsemane and the agony of the Accursed Tree.  That is a fame which
has glory and honor and immortality and Eternal Life.  Let Abraham
Lincoln make himself, as I trust he will, the Emancipator, the
Liberator, as he has the opportunity of doing, and his name shall not
only be enrolled in this Earthly Temple, but it will be traced on the
living stones of that Temple which rears itself amid the Thrones and
Hierarchies of Heaven, whose top-stone is to be brought in with shouting
of 'Grace, grace unto it!'"

We have seen how the loyal Border-State men, through their chosen
Representative--finding that their steady and unfaltering opposition to
all Mr. Lincoln's propositions, while quite ineffectual, did not serve
by any means to increase his respect for their peculiar kind of loyalty
--offered him posthumous honors and worship if he would but do as they
desired.  Had they possessed the power, no doubt they would have taken
him up into an exceeding high mountain and have offered to him all the
Kingdoms of the Earth to do their bidding.  But their temptations were
of no avail.

President Lincoln's duty, and inclination alike--no less than the
earnest importunities of the Abolitionists--carried him in the opposite
direction; but carried him no farther than he thought it safe, and wise,
to go.  For, in whatever he might do on this burning question of
Emancipation, he was determined to secure that adequate support from the
People without which even Presidential Proclamations are waste paper.

But now, May 9, 1862, was suddenly issued by General Hunter, commanding
the "Department of the South," comprising Georgia, Florida and South
Carolina, his celebrated Order announcing Martial Law, in those States,
as a Military Necessity, and--as "Slavery and Martial Law in a Free
Country are altogether incompatible"--declaring all Slaves therein,
"forever Free."

This second edition, as it were, of Fremont's performance, at once threw
the loyal Border-State men into a terrible ferment.  Again, they, and
their Copperhead and other Democratic friends of the North, meanly
professed belief that this was but a part of Mr. Lincoln's programme,
and that his apparent backwardness was the cloak to hide his
Anti-Slavery aggressiveness and insincerity.

How hurtful the insinuations, and even direct charges, of the day, made
by these men against President Lincoln, must have been to his honest,
sincere, and sensitive nature, can scarcely be conceived by those who
did not know him; while, on the other hand, the reckless impatience of
some of his friends for "immediate and universal Emancipation," and
their complaints at his slow progress toward that goal of their hopes,
must have been equally trying.

True to himself, however, and to the wise conservative course which he
had marked out, and, thus far, followed, President Lincoln hastened to
disavow Hunter's action in the premises, by a Proclamation, heretofore
given, declaring that no person had been authorized by the United States
Government to declare the Slaves of any State, Free; that Hunter's
action in this respect was void; that, as Commander-in-chief he reserved
solely to himself, the questions, first, as to whether he had the power
to declare the Slaves of any State or States, Free, and, second, whether
the time and necessity for the exercise of such supposed power had
arrived.  And then, as we may remember, he proceeded to cite the
adoption, by overwhelming majorities in Congress, of the Joint
Resolution offering pecuniary aid from the National Government to "any
State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of Slavery;" and to make a
most earnest appeal, for support, to the Border-States and to their
people, as being "the most interested in the subject matter."

In his Special Message to Congress,--[Of March 6, 1862.]--recommending
the passage of that Joint Resolution, he had plainly and emphatically
declared himself against sudden Emancipation of Slaves.  He had therein
distinctly said: "In my judgment, gradual, and not immediate,
Emancipation, is better for all."  And now, in this second appeal of his
to the Border-States men, to patriotically close with the proposal
embraced in that.  Resolution, he said: "The changes it contemplates
would come gently as the dews of Heaven, not rending or wrecking
anything.  Will you not embrace it?  So much good has not been done, by
one effort, in all past time, as, in the providence of God, it is now
your high privilege to do!  May the vast future not have to lament that
you have neglected it!"

     [The following letter, from Sumner, shows the impatience of some of
     the President's friends, the confidence he inspired in others
     nearer in his counsels, and how entirely, at this time, his mind
     was absorbed in his project for gradual and compensated
     Emancipation.]

                         "SENATE CHAMBER, June 5, 1862.

     "MY DEAR SIR.--Your criticism of the President is hasty.  I am
     confident that, if you knew him as I do, you would not make it.  Of
     course the President cannot be held responsible for the
     misfeasances of subordinates, unless adopted or at least tolerated
     by him.  And I am sure that nothing unjust or ungenerous will be
     tolerated, much less adopted, by him.

     "I am happy to let you know that he has no sympathy with Stanly in
     his absurd wickedness, closing the schools, nor again in his other
     act of turning our camp into a hunting ground for Slaves.  He
     repudiates both--positively.  The latter point has occupied much of
     his thought; and the newspapers have not gone too far in recording
     his repeated declarations, which I have often heard from his own
     lips, that Slaves finding their way into the National lines are
     never to be Re-enslaved--This is his conviction, expressed without
     reserve.

     "Could you have seen the President--as it was my privilege often
     --while he was considering the great questions on which he has
     already acted--the invitation to Emancipation in the States,
     Emancipation in the District of Columbia, and the acknowledgment of
     the Independence of Hayti and Liberia--even your zeal would have
     been satisfied, for you would have felt the sincerity of his
     purpose to do what he could to carry forward the principles of the
     Declaration of Independence.

     "His whole soul was occupied, especially by the first proposition,
     which was peculiarly his own.  In familiar intercourse with him, I
     remember nothing more touching than the earnestness and
     completeness with which he embraced this idea.  To his mind, it was
     just and beneficent, while it promised the sure end of Slavery.  Of
     course, to me, who had already proposed a bridge of gold for the
     retreating fiend, it was most welcome.  Proceeding from the
     President, it must take its place among the great events of
     history.

     "If you are disposed to be impatient at any seeming
     shortcomings, think, I pray you, of what has been done in a brief
     period, and from the past discern the sure promise of the future.
     Knowing something of my convictions and of the ardor with which I
     maintain them, you may, perhaps, derive some assurance from my
     confidence; I may say to you, therefore, stand by the
     Administration.  If need be, help it by word and act, but stand by
     it and have faith in it.

     "I wish that you really knew the President, and had heard the
     artless expression of his convictions on those questions which
     concern you so deeply.  You might, perhaps, wish that he were less
     cautious, but you would be grateful that he is so true to all that
     you have at heart.  Believe me, therefore, you are wrong, and I
     regret it the more because of my desire to see all our friends
     stand firmly together.

     "If I write strongly it is because I feel strongly; for my constant
     and intimate intercourse with the President, beginning with the 4th
     of March, not only binds me peculiarly to his Administration, but
     gives me a personal as well as a political interest in seeing that
     justice is done him.

     "Believe me, my dear Sir, with much regard, ever faithfully yours,
                              "CHARLES SUMNER."

But stones are not more deaf to entreaty than were the ears of the loyal
Border-State men and their allies to President Lincoln's renewed appeal.
"Ephraim" was "wedded to his idols."

McClellan too--immediately after his retreat from the Chickahominy to
the James River--seized the opportunity afforded by the disasters to our
arms, for which he was responsible, to write to President Lincoln a
letter (dated July 7, 1862) in which he admonished him that owing to the
"critical" condition of the Army of the Potomac, and the danger of its
being "overwhelmed" by the Enemy in front, the President must now
substantially assume and exercise the powers of a Dictator, or all would
be lost; that "neither Confiscation of property * * * nor forcible
Abolition of Slavery, should be contemplated for a moment;" and that "A
declaration of Radical views, especially upon Slavery, will rapidly
disintegrate our present Armies."

Harried, and worried, on all sides,--threatened even by the Commander of
the Army of the Potomac,--it is not surprising, in view of the
apparently irreconcilable attitude of the loyal Border-State men to
gradual and compensated Emancipation, that the tension of President
Lincoln's mind began to feel a measure of relief in contemplating
Military Emancipation in the teeth of all such threats.

He had long since made up his mind that the existence of Slavery was not
compatible with the preservation of the Union.  The only question now
was, how to get rid of it?  If the worst should come to the worst
--despite McClellan's threat--he would have to risk everything on the turn
of the die--would have to "play his last card;" and that "last card" was
Military Emancipation.  Yet still he disliked to play it.  The time and
necessity for it had not yet arrived--although he thought he saw them
coming.

     [In the course of an article in the New York Tribune, August, 1885,
     Hon.  George S.  Boutwell tells of an interview in "July or early
     in August" of 1862, with President Lincoln, at which the latter
     read two letters: one from a Louisiana man "who claimed to be a
     Union man," but sought to impress the President with "the dangers
     and evils of Emancipation;" the other, Mr. Lincoln's reply to him,
     in which, says Mr. B., "he used this expression: 'you must not
     expect me to give up this Government without playing my last card.'
     Emancipation was his last card."]

Things were certainly, at this time, sufficiently unpromising to chill
the sturdiest Patriot's heart.  It is true, we had scored some important
victories in the West; but in the East, our arms seemed fated to
disaster after disaster.  Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and
Pittsburg Landing, were names whose mention made the blood of Patriots
to surge in their veins; and Corinth, too, had fallen.  But in the East,
McClellan's profitless campaign against Richmond, and especially his
disastrous "change of base" by a "masterly" seven days' retreat,
involving as many bloody battles, had greatly dispirited all Union men,
and encouraged the Rebels and Rebel-sympathizers to renewed hopes and
efforts.

And, as reverses came to the Union Arms, so seemed to grow
proportionately the efforts, on all sides, to force forward, or to stave
off, as the case might be, the great question of the liberation and
arming of the Slaves, as a War Measure, under the War powers of the
Constitution.  It was about this time (July 12, 1862) that President
Lincoln determined to make a third, and last, attempt to avert the
necessity for thus emancipating and arming the Slaves.  He invited all
the Senators and Representatives in Congress from the Border-States, to
an interview at the White House, and made to them the appeal, heretofore
in these pages given at length.

It was an earnest, eloquent, wise, kindly, patriotic, fatherly appeal in
behalf of his old proposition, for a gradual, compensated Emancipation,
by the Slave States, aided by the resources of the National Government.

At the very time of making it, he probably had, in his drawer, the rough
draft of the Proclamation which was soon to give Liberty to all the
Colored millions of the Land.

     [McPherson gives a letter, written from Washington, by Owen Lovejoy
     (Feb. 22, 1864), to Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in which the following
     passage occurs:

     "Recurring to the President, there are a great many reports
     concerning him which seem to be reliable and authentic, which,
     after all, are not so.  It was currently reported among the
     Anti-Slavery men of Illinois that the Emancipation Proclamation was
     extorted from him by the outward pressure, and particularly by the
     Delegation from the Christian Convention that met at Chicago.

     "Now, the fact is this, as I had it from his own lips: He had
     written the Proclamation in the Summer, as early as June, I think
     --but will not be certain as to the precise time--and called his
     Cabinet together, and informed them he had written it and meant to
     make it, but wanted to read it to them for any criticism or remarks
     as to its features or details.

     "After having done so, Mr. Seward suggested whether it would not be
     well for him to withhold its publication until after we had gained
     some substantial advantage in the Field, as at that time we had met
     with many reverses, and it might be considered a cry of despair.
     He told me he thought the suggestion a wise one, and so held on to
     the Proclamation until after the Battle of Antietam."]

Be that as it may, however, sufficient evidences exist, to prove that he
must have been fully aware, at the time of making that appeal to the
supposed patriotism of these Border-State men, how much, how very much,
depended on the manner of their reception of it.

To him, that meeting was a very solemn and portentous one.  He had
studied the question long and deeply--not from the standpoint of his own
mere individual feelings and judgment, but from that of fair
Constitutional construction, as interpreted by the light of Natural or
General Law and right reason.  What he sought to impress upon them was,
that an immediate decision by the Border-States to adopt, and in due
time carry out, with the financial help of the General Government, a
policy of gradual Emancipation, would simultaneously solve the two
intimately-blended problems of Slavery-destruction and
Union-preservation, in the best possible manner for the pockets and
feelings of the Border-State Slave-holder, and for the other interests
of both Border-State Slave-holder and Slave.

His great anxiety was to "perpetuate," as well as to save, to the People
of the World, the imperiled form of Popular Government, and assure to it
a happy and a grand future.

He begged these Congressmen from the Border-States, to help him carry
out this, his beneficent plan, in the way that was best for all, and
thus at the same time utterly deprive the Rebel Confederacy of that
hope, which still possessed them, of ultimately gathering these States
into their rebellious fold.  And he very plainly, at the same time,
confessed that he desired this relief from the Abolition pressure upon
him, which had been growing more intense ever since he had repudiated
the Hunter proclamation.

But the President's earnest appeal to these loyal Representatives in
Congress from the Border-States, was, as we have seen, in vain.  It
might as well have been made to actual Rebels, for all the good it did.
For, a few days afterward, they sent to him a reply signed by more than
two-thirds of those present, hitherto given at length in these pages, in
which-after loftily sneering at the proposition as "an interference by
this Government with a question which peculiarly and exclusively
belonged to" their "respective States, on which they had not sought
advice or solicited aid," throwing doubts upon the Constitutional power
of the General Government to give the financial aid, and undertaking by
statistics to prove that it would absolutely bankrupt the Government to
give such aid,--they insultingly declared, in substance, that they could
not "trust anything to the contingencies of future legislation," and
that Congress must "provide sufficient funds" and place those funds in
the President's hands for the purpose, before the Border-States and
their people would condescend even to "take this proposition into
careful consideration, for such decision as in their judgment is
demanded by their interest, their honor, and their duty to the whole
Country."

Very different in tone, to be sure, was the minority reply, which, after
stating that "the leaders of the Southern Rebellion have offered to
abolish Slavery among them as a condition to Foreign Intervention in
favor of their Independence as a Nation," concluded with the terse and
loyal deduction: "If they can give up Slavery to destroy the Union, we
can surely ask our people to consider the question of Emancipation to
save the Union."

But those who signed this latter reply were few, among the many.
Practically, the Border-State men were a unit against Mr. Lincoln's
proposition, and against its fair consideration by their people.  He
asked for meat, and they gave him a stone.

Only a few days before this interview, President Lincoln--alarmed by the
report of McClellan, that the magnificent Army of the Potomac under his
command, which, only three months before, had boasted 161,000 men, had
dwindled down to not more than "50,000 men left with their colors"--had
been to the front, at Harrison's Landing, on the James river, and,
although he had not found things quite so disheartening as he had been
led to believe, yet they were bad enough, for only 86,000 men were found
by him on duty, while 75,000 were unaccounted for--of which number
34,4172 were afterward reported as "absent by authority."

This condition of affairs, in connection with the fact that McClellan
was always calling for more troops, undoubtedly had its influence in
bringing Mr. Lincoln's mind to the conviction, hitherto mentioned, of
the fast-approaching Military necessity for Freeing and Arming the
Slaves.

It was to ward this off, if possible, that he had met and appealed to
the Border-State Representatives.  They had answered him with sneers and
insults; and nothing was left him but the extreme course of almost
immediate Emancipation.

Long and anxiously he had thought over the matter, but the time for
action was at hand.

And now, it cannot be better told, than in President Lincoln's own
words, as given to the portrait-painter Carpenter, and recorded in the
latter's, "Six months in the White House," what followed:

"It had got to be," said he, "midsummer, 1862.  Things had gone on from
bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on
the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played
our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game!

"I now determined upon the adoption of the Emancipation Policy; and,
without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the Cabinet, I prepared
the original draft of the Proclamation, and, after much anxious thought,
called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject.  This was the last of July,
or the first part of the month of August, 1862."  (The exact date he did
not remember.)

"This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon a Saturday.  All were
present, excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was absent at
the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently.  I said to the
Cabinet, that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them
together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a
Proclamation before them; suggestions as to which would be in order,
after they had heard it read.

"Mr. Lovejoy was in error" when he stated "that it excited no comment,
excepting on the part of Secretary Seward.  Various suggestions were
offered.  Secretary Chase wished the language stronger, in reference to
the arming of the Blacks.  Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the
policy, on the ground that it would cost the Administration the fall
elections.

"Nothing, however, was offered, that I had not already
fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward
spoke.  He said in substance: 'Mr. President, I approve of the
Proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this
juncture.  The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our
repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a
step.  It may be viewed as the last Measure of an exhausted Government,
a cry for help, the Government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia,
instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the Government.'

"His idea," said the President "was that it would be considered our last
shriek, on the retreat." (This was his precise expression.)  "' Now,'
continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the Measure, I suggest, Sir, that
you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the Country supported
by Military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now,
upon the greatest disasters of the War!'"

Mr. Lincoln continued: "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of
State, struck me with very great force.  It was an aspect of the case
that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked.
The result was that I put the draft of the Proclamation aside, as you do
your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory."

It may not be amiss to interrupt the President's narration to Mr.
Carpenter, at this point, with a few words touching "the Military
Situation."

After McClellan's inexplicable retreat from before the Rebel Capital
--when, having gained a great victory at Malvern Hills, Richmond would
undoubtedly have been ours, had he but followed it up, instead of
ordering his victorious troops to retreat like "a whipped Army"--[See
General Hooker's testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the
War.]--his recommendation, in the extraordinary letter (of July 7th) to
the President, for the creation of the office of General-in-Chief, was
adopted, and Halleck, then at Corinth, was ordered East, to fill it.

Pope had previously been called from the West, to take
command of the troops covering Washington, comprising some 40,000 men,
known as the Army of Virginia; and, finding cordial cooperation with
McClellan impossible, had made a similar suggestion.

Soon after Halleck's arrival, that General ordered the transfer of the
Army of the Potomac, from Harrison's Landing to Acquia creek--on the
Potomac--with a view to a new advance upon Richmond, from the
Rappahannock river.

While this was being slowly accomplished, Lee, relieved from fears for
Richmond, decided to advance upon Washington, and speedily commenced the
movement.

On the 8th of August, 1862, Stonewall Jackson, leading the Rebel
advance, had crossed the Rapidan; on the 9th the bloody Battle of Cedar
Mountain had been fought with part of Pope's Army; and on the 11th,
Jackson had retreated across the Rapidan again.

Subsequently, Pope having retired across the Rappahannock, Lee's Forces,
by flanking Pope's Army, again resumed their Northern advance.  August
28th and 29th witnessed the bloody Battles of Groveton and Gainesville,
Virginia; the 30th saw the defeat of Pope, by Lee, at the second great
Battle of Bull Run, and the falling back of Pope's Army toward
Washington; and the succeeding Battle of Chantilly took place September
1, 1862.

It is not necessary at this time to even touch upon the causes and
agencies which brought such misfortune to the Union Arms, under Pope.
It is sufficient to say here, that the disaster of the second Bull Run
was a dreadful blow to the Union Cause, and correspondingly elated the
Rebels.

Jefferson Davis, in transmitting to the Rebel Congress at Richmond,
Lee's victorious announcements, said, in his message: "From these
dispatches it will be seen that God has again extended His shield over
our patriotic Army, and has blessed the cause of the Confederacy with a
second signal victory, on the field already memorable by the gallant
achievement of our troops."

Flushed with victory, but wisely avoiding the fortifications of the
National Capital, Lee's Forces now swept past Washington; crossed the
Potomac, near Point of Rocks, at its rear; and menaced both the National
Capital and Baltimore.

Yielding to the apparent necessity of the moment, the President again
placed.  McClellan in command of the Armies about Washington, to wit:
the Army of the Potomac; Burnside's troops that had come up from North
Carolina; what remained of Pope's Army of Virginia; and the large
reinforcements from fresh levies, constantly and rapidly pouring in.

     [This was probably about the time of the occurrence of an amusing
     incident, touching Lincoln, McClellan, and the fortifications
     around Washington, afterward told by General J. G. Barnard, then
     Chief of Engineers on the staff of General George B.  McClellan.
     --See New York Tribune, October 21, 1885.  It seems that the
     fortifications having been completed, McClellan invited Mr. Lincoln
     and his Cabinet to inspect them.  "On the day appointed," said
     Barnard, "the Inspection commenced at Arlington, to the Southwest
     of Washington, and in front of the Enemy.  We followed the line of
     the works southerly, and recrossed the Potomac to the easterly side
     of the river, and continued along the line easterly of Washington
     and into the heaviest of all the fortifications on the northerly
     side of Washington.  When we reached this point the President asked
     General McClellan to explain the necessity of so strong a
     fortification between Washington and the North.

     "General McClellan replied: 'Why, Mr. President, according to
     Military Science it is our duty to guard against every possible or
     supposable contingency that may arise.  For example, if under any
     circumstances, however fortuitous, the Enemy, by any chance or
     freak, should, in a last resort, get in behind Washington, in his
     efforts to capture the city, why, there the fort is to defend it.'

     "'Yes, that's so General,' said the President; 'the precaution is
     doubtless a wise one, and I'm glad to get so clear an explanation,
     for it reminds me of an interesting question once discussed for
     several weeks in our Lyceum, or Moot Court, at Springfield, Ill.,
     soon after I began reading law.'

     "'Ah!' says General McClellan.  'What question was that, Mr.
     President?'

     "'The question,' Mr. Lincoln replied, 'was, "Why does man have
     breasts?"' and he added that after many evenings' debate, the
     question was submitted to the presiding Judge, who wisely decided
     'That if under any circumstances, however fortuitous, or by any
     chance or freak, no matter of what nature or by what cause, a man
     should have a baby, there would be the breasts to nurse it.'"]

Yet, it was not until the 17th of September that the Battle of Antietam
was fought, and Lee defeated--and then only to be allowed to slip back,
across the Potomac, on the 18th--McClellan leisurely following him,
across that river, on the 2nd of November!

     [Arnold, in his "Life of Abraham Lincoln," says that President
     Lincoln said of him: "With all his failings as a soldier, McClellan
     is a pleasant and scholarly gentleman.  He is an admirable
     Engineer, but" he added, "he seems to have a special talent for a
     stationary Engine."]

On the 5th, McClellan was relieved,--Burnside taking the command,--and
Union men breathed more freely again.

But to return to the subject of Emancipation.  President Lincoln's own
words have already been given--in conversation with Carpenter--down to
the reading of the Proclamation to his Cabinet, and Seward's suggestion
to "wait for a victory" before issuing it, and how, adopting that
advice, he laid the Proclamation aside, waiting for a victory.

"From time to time," said Mr. Lincoln, continuing his narration, "I
added or changed a line, touching it up here and there, anxiously
waiting the progress of events.  Well, the next news we had was of
Pope's disaster at Bull Run.  Things looked darker than ever.  Finally,
came the week of the Battle of Antietam.  I determined to wait no
longer.

"The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on our
side.  I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home (three miles out of
Washington.)  Here I finished writing the second draft of the
preliminary Proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the Cabinet
together to hear it; and it was published the following Monday."

It is not uninteresting to note, in this connection, upon the same
authority, that at the final meeting of the Cabinet prior to this issue
of the Proclamation, when the third paragraph was read, and the words of
the draft "will recognize the Freedom of such Persons," were reached,
Mr. Seward suggested the insertion of the words "and maintain" after the
word "recognize;" and upon his insistence, the President said, "the
words finally went in."

At last, then, had gone forth the Fiat--telegraphed and read throughout
the Land, on that memorable 22d of September, 1862--which, with the
supplemental Proclamation of January 1, 1863, was to bring joy and
Freedom to the millions of Black Bondsmen of the South.

Just one month before its issue, in answer to Horace Greeley's Open
letter berating him for "the seeming subserviency" of his "policy to the
Slave-holding, Slave up-holding interest," etc., President Lincoln had
written his famous "Union letter" in which he had conservatively said:
"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or
destroy Slavery.  If I could save the Union without freeing any Slave, I
would do it--and if I could save it by freeing all the Slaves, I would
do it--and if I could save it by freeing some, and leaving others alone,
I would also do that."

No one outside of his Cabinet dreamed, at the time he made that answer,
that the Proclamation of Emancipation was already written, and simply
awaited a turn in the tide of battle for its issue!

Still less could it have been supposed, when, on the 13th of September
--only two days before Stonewall Jackson had invested, attacked, and
captured Harper's Ferry with nearly 12,000 prisoners, 73 cannon, and
13,000 small arms, besides other spoils of War--Mr. Lincoln received the
deputation from the religious bodies of Chicago, bearing a Memorial for
the immediate issue of such a Proclamation.

The very language of his reply,--where he said to them: "It is my
earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter.  And if I
can learn what it is, I will do it!  These are not, however, the days of
miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a
direct revelation.  I must study the plain physical aspects of the case,
ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and
right"--when taken in connection with the very strong argument with
which he followed it up, against the policy of Emancipation advocated in
the Memorial, and his intimation that a Proclamation of Emancipation
issued by him "must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's Bull
against the Comet!"--would almost seem to have been adopted with the
very object of veiling his real purpose from the public eye, and leaving
the public mind in doubt.  At all events, it had that effect.

Arnold, in his "Life of Lincoln," says of this time, when General Lee
was marching Northward toward Pennsylvania, that "now, the President,
with that tinge of superstition which ran through his character, 'made,'
as he said, 'a solemn vow to God, that, if Lee was driven back, he would
issue the Proclamation;'" and, in the light of that statement, the
concluding words of Mr. Lincoln's reply to the deputation aforesaid:--"I
can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and night, more
than any other.  Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I will do,"
--have a new meaning.

The Emancipation Proclamation, when issued, was a great surprise, but
was none the less generally well-received by the Union Armies, and
throughout the Loyal States of the Union, while, in some of them, its
reception was most enthusiastic.

It happened, too, as we have seen, that the Convention of the Governors
of the Loyal States met at Altoona, Penn., on the very day of its
promulgation, and in an address to the President adopted by these loyal
Governors, they publicly hailed it "with heartfelt gratitude and
encouraged hope," and declared that "the decision of the President to
strike at the root of the Rebellion will lend new vigor to efforts, and
new life and hope to the hearts, of the People."

On the other hand, the loyal Border-States men were dreadfully exercised
on the subject; and those of them in the House of Representatives
emphasized their disapproval by their votes, when, on the 11th and 15th
of the following December, Resolutions, respectively denouncing, and
endorsing, "the policy of Emancipation, as indicated in that
Proclamation," of September 22, 1862, were offered and voted on.

In spite of the loyal Border-States men's bitter opposition, however,
the Resolution endorsing that policy as a War Measure, and declaring the
Proclamation to be "an exercise of power with proper regard for the
rights of the States and the perpetuity of Free Government," as we have
seen, passed the House.

Of course the Rebels themselves, against whom it was aimed, gnashed
their teeth in impotent rage over the Proclamation.  But they lost no
time in declaring that it was only a proof of what they had always
announced: that the War was not for the preservation of the American
Union, but for the destruction of African Slavery, and the spoilation of
the Southern States.

Through their friends and emissaries, in the Border and other Loyal
States of the Union,--the "Knights of the Golden Circle,"--

     [The "Knights of the Golden Circle" was the most extensive of these
     Rebel organizations.  It was "an auxiliary force to the Rebel
     Army."  Its members took an obligation of the most binding
     character, the violation of which was punishable by death, which
     obligation, in the language of another, "pledged them to use every
     possible means in their power to aid the Rebels to gain their
     Independence; to aid and assist Rebel prisoners to escape; to vote
     for no one for Office who was not opposed to the further
     prosecution of the War; to encourage desertions from the Union
     Army; to protect the Rebels in all things necessary to carry out
     their designs, even to the burning and destroying of towns and
     cities, if necessary to produce the desired result; to give such
     information as they had, at all times, of the movements of our
     Armies, and of the return of soldiers to their homes; and to try
     and prevent their going back to their regiments at the front."

     In other words the duty of the Organization and of its members, was
     to hamper, oppose, and prevent all things possible that were being
     done at any time for the Union Cause, and to encourage, forward,
     and help all things possible in behalf of the Rebel Cause.

     It was to be a flanking force of the Enemy--a reverse fire--a fire
     in the rear of the Union Army, by Northern men; a powerful
     cooperating force--all the more powerful because secret--operating
     safely because secretly and in silence--and breeding discontent,
     envy, hatred, and other ill feelings wherever possible, in and out
     of Army circles, from the highest to the lowest, at all possible
     times, and on all possible occasions.]

--the "Order of American Knights" or "Sons of Liberty," and other
Copperhead organizations, tainted with more or less of Treason--they
stirred up all the old dregs of Pro-Slavery feeling that could possibly
he reached; but while the venomous acts and utterances of such
organizations, and the increased and vindictive energy of the armed
Rebels themselves, had a tendency to disquiet the public mind with
apprehensions as to the result of the Proclamation, and whether, indeed,
Mr. Lincoln himself would be able to resist the pressure, and stand up
to his promise of that Supplemental Proclamation which would give
definiteness and practical effect to the preliminary one, the masses of
the people of the Loyal States had faith in him.

There was also another element, in chains, at the South, which at this
time must have been trembling with that mysterious hope of coming
Emancipation for their Race, conveyed so well in Whittier's lines,
commencing: "We pray de Lord; he gib us signs, dat some day we be Free"
--a hope which had long animated them, as of something almost too good
for them to live to enjoy, but which, as the War progressed, appeared to
grow nearer and nearer, until now they seemed to see the promised Land,
flowing with milk and honey, its beautiful hills and vales smiling under
the quickening beams of Freedom's glorious sun.  But ah! should they
enter there?--or must they turn away again into the old wilderness of
their Slavery, and this blessed Liberty, almost within their grasp,
mockingly elude them?

They had not long to wait for an answer.  The 1st of January, 1863,
arrived, and with it--as a precious New Year's Gift--came the
Supplemental Proclamation, bearing the sacred boon of Liberty to the
Emancipated millions.

At last, at last, no American need blush to stand up and proclaim his
land indeed, and in truth, "the Land of Freedom."




                              CHAPTER XXI.

                            THE ARMED-NEGRO.

Little over five months had passed, since the occurrence of the great
event in the history of the American Nation mentioned in the preceding
Chapter, before the Freed Negro, now bearing arms in defense of the
Union and of his own Freedom, demonstrated at the first attack on Port
Hudson the wisdom of emancipating and arming the Slave, as a War
measure.  He seemed thoroughly to appreciate and enter into the spirit
of the words; "who would be Free, himself must strike the blow."

At the attack (of May 27th, 1863), on Port Hudson, where it held the
right, the "Black Brigade" covered itself with glory.

     At Baton Rouge, before starting for Port Hudson, the color-guard of
     the First Louisiana Regiment--of the Black Brigade--received the
     Regimental flags from their white colonel, (Col. Stafford,) then
     under arrest, in a speech which ended with the injunction:
     "Color-guard, protect, defend, die for, but do not surrender these
     flags;" to which Sergeant Planciancois replied: "Colonel, I will
     bring these colors to you in honor, or report to God the reason
     why!"  He fell, mortally wounded, in one of the many desperate
     charges at Port Hudson, with his face to the Enemy, and the colors
     in his hand.

Banks, in his Report, speaking of the Colored regiments, said: "Their
conduct was heroic.  No troops could be more determined or more daring.
They made, during the day, three charges upon the batteries of the
Enemy, suffering very heavy losses, and holding their positions at
nightfall with the other troops on the right of our line.  The highest
commendation is bestowed upon them by all the officers in command on the
right."

The New York Times' correspondent said:--"The deeds of heroism performed
by these Colored men were such as the proudest White men might emulate.
Their colors are torn to pieces by shot, and literally bespattered by
blood and brains.  The color-sergeant of the 1st Louisiana, on being
mortally wounded (the top of his head taken off by a sixpounder), hugged
the colors to his breast, when a struggle ensued between the two
color-corporals on each side of him, as to who should have the honor of
bearing the sacred standard, and during this generous contention one was
seriously wounded."

So again, on Sunday the 6th of June following, at Milliken's Bend, where
an African brigade, with 160 men of the 23rd Iowa, although surprised in
camp by a largely superior force of the Enemy, repulsed him gallantly
--of which action General Grant, in his official Report, said: "In this
battle, most of the troops engaged were Africans, who had but little
experience in the use of fire-arms.  Their conduct is said, however, to
have been most gallant."

So, also, in the bloody assault of July 18th, on Fort Wagner, which was
led by the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Regiment with intrepidity, and
where they planted, and for some time maintained, their Country's flag
on the parapet, until they "melted away before the Enemy's fire, their
bodies falling down the slope and into the ditch."

And from that time on, through the War--at Wilson's Wharf, in the many
bloody charges at Petersburg, at Deep Bottom, at Chapin's Farm, Fair
Oaks, and numerous other battle-fields, in Virginia and elsewhere, right
down to Appomattox--the African soldier fought courageously, fully
vindicating the War-wisdom of Abraham Lincoln in emancipating and arming
the Race.

The promulgation of this New Year's Proclamation of Freedom
unquestionably had a wonderful effect in various ways, upon the outcome
of the War.

It cleared away the cobwebs which the arguments of the loyal
Border-State men, and of the Northern Copperheads and other Disunion
and Pro-Slavery allies of the Rebels were forever weaving for the
discouragement, perplexity and ensnarement, of the thoroughly loyal
out-and-out Union men of the Land.  It largely increased our strength in
fighting material.  It brought to us the moral support of the World,
with the active sympathy of philanthropy's various forces.  And besides,
it correspondingly weakened the Rebels.  Every man thus freed from his
Bondage, and mustered into the Union Armies, was not only a gain of one
man on the Union side, but a loss of one man to the Enemy.  It is not,
therefore, surprising that the Disunion Conspirators--whether at the
South or at the North--were furious.

The Chief Conspirator, Jefferson Davis, had already, (December 23,
1862,) issued a proclamation of outlawry against General B. F. Butler,
for arming certain Slaves that had become Free upon entering his lines
--the two last clauses of which provided: "That all Negro Slaves captured
in arms, be at once delivered over to the Executive authorities of the
respective States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to
the laws of said States," and "That the like orders be executed in all
cases with respect to all commissioned Officers of the United States,
when found serving in company with said Slaves in insurrection against
the authorities of the different States of this Confederacy."

He now called the attention of the Rebel Congress to President Lincoln's
two Proclamations of Emancipation, early in January of 1863; and that
Body responded by adopting, on the 1st of May of that year, a
Resolution, the character of which was so cold-bloodedly atrocious, that
modern Civilization might well wonder and Christianity shudder at its
purport.

     [It was in these words:

     "Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, In
     response to the Message of the President, transmitted to Congress
     at the commencement of the present session, That, in the opinion of
     Congress, the commissioned officers of the Enemy ought not to be
     delivered to the authorities of the respective States, as suggested
     in the said Message, but all captives taken by the Confederate
     forces ought to be dealt with and disposed of by the Confederate
     Government.

     "SEC. 2.--That, in the judgment of Congress, the proclamations of
     the President of the United States, dated respectively September
     22, 1862, and January 1, 1863, and the other measures of the
     Government of the United States and of its authorities, commanders,
     and forces, designed or tending to emancipate slaves in the
     Confederate States, or to abduct such slaves, or to incite them to
     insurrection, or to employ negroes in war against the Confederate
     States, or to overthrow the institution of African Slavery, and
     bring on a servile war in these States, would, if successful,
     produce atrocious consequences, and they are inconsistent with the
     spirit of those usages which, in modern warfare, prevail among
     civilized nations; they may, therefore, be properly and lawfully
     repressed by retaliation.

     "SEC. 3.--That in every case wherein, during the present war, any
     violation of the laws or usages of war among civilized nations
     shall be, or has been, done and perpetrated by those acting under
     authority of the Government of the United States, on persons or
     property of citizens of the Confederate States, or of those under
     the protection or in the land or naval service of the Confederate
     States, or of any State of the Confederacy, the President of the
     Confederate States is hereby authorized to cause full and ample
     retaliation to be made for every such violation, in such manner and
     to such extent as he may think proper.

     "SEC. 4.--That every white person, being a commissioned officer, or
     acting as such, who, during the present war, shall command negroes
     or mulattoes in arms against the Confederate States, or who shall
     arm, train, organize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military
     service against the Confederate States, or who shall voluntarily
     aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enterprise, attack, or
     conflict in such service, shall be deemed as inciting servile
     insurrection, and shall, if captured, be put to death, or be
     otherwise punished at the discretion of the Court.

     "SEC. 5.--Every person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as
     such in the service of the Enemy, who shall, during the present
     war, excite, attempt to excite, or cause to be excited, a servile
     insurrection, or who shall incite, or cause to be incited, a slave
     to rebel, shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise
     punished at the discretion of the court.

     "SEC. 6.--Every person charged with an offense punishable under the
     preceding resolutions shall, during the present war, be tried
     before the military court attached to the army or corps by the
     troops of which he shall have been captured, or by such other
     military court as the President may direct, and in such manner and
     under such regulations as the President shall prescribe; and, after
     conviction, the President may commute the punishment in such manner
     and on such terms as he may deem proper.

     "SEC. 7.--All negroes and mulattoes who shall be engaged in war, or
     be taken in arms against the Confederate States, or shall give aid
     or comfort to the enemies of the Confederate States, shall, when
     captured in the Confederate States, be delivered to the authorities
     of the State or States in which they shall be captured, to be dealt
     with according to the present or future laws of such State or
     States."]

But atrocious as were the provisions of the Resolution, or Act
aforesaid, in that they threatened death or Slavery to every Black man
taken with Union arms in his hand, and death to every White commissioned
officer commanding Black soldiers, yet the manner in which they were
executed was still more barbarous.

At last it became necessary to adopt some measure by which captured
Colored Union soldiers might be protected equally with captured White
Union soldiers from the frequent Rebel violations of the Laws of War in
the cases of the former.

President Lincoln, therefore, issued an Executive Order prescribing
retaliatory measures.

     [In the following words:

     "EXECUTIVE MANSION,

     "WASHINGTON, July 30, 1863.

     "It is the duty of every Government to give protection to its
     citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to
     those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service.
     The Law of Nations, and the usages and customs of War, as carried
     on by civilized Powers, permit no distinction as to color in the
     treatment of prisoners of War, as public enemies.

     "To sell or Enslave any captured person, on account of his Color,
     and for no offense against the Laws of War, is a relapse into
     barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age.

     "The Government of the United States will give the same protection
     to all its soldiers, and if the Enemy shall sell or Enslave any one
     because of his color, the offense shall be punished by Retaliation
     upon the Enemy's prisoners in our possession.

     "It is therefore Ordered, that, for every soldier of the United
     States killed in violation of the Laws of War, a Rebel soldier
     shall be executed; and for every one Enslaved by the Enemy or sold
     into Slavery, a Rebel soldier shall be placed at hard work on the
     public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be
     released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of War.

     "By order of the Secretary of War.  ABRAHAM LINCOLN.  E. D.
     TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General."]

It was hoped that the mere announcement of the decision of our
Government to retaliate, would put an instant stop to the barbarous
conduct of the Rebels toward the captured Colored Union troops, but the
hope was vain.  The atrocities continued, and their climax was capped by
the cold-blooded massacres perpetrated by Forrest's 5,000 Cavalry, after
capturing Fort Pillow, a short distance above Memphis, on the
Mississippi river.

The garrison of that Fort comprised less than 600 Union soldiers, about
one-half of whom were White, and the balance Black.  These brave fellows
gallantly defended the Fort against eight times their number, from
before sunrise until the afternoon, when--having failed to win by fair
means, under the Laws of War,--the Enemy treacherously crept up the
ravines on either side of the Fort, under cover of flags of truce, and
then, with a sudden rush, carried it, butchering both Blacks and Whites
--who had thrown away their arms, and were striving to escape--until
night temporarily put an end to the sanguinary tragedy.

On the following morning the massacre was completed by the butchery and
torture of wounded remnants of these brave Union defenders--some being
buried alive, and others nailed to boards, and burned to death.

     [For full account of these hideous atrocities, see testimony of
     survivors before the Committee on Conduct and Expenditures of the
     War.  (H. R.  Report, No. 65, 1st S.  38th Cong.)]

And all this murderous malignity, for what?--Simply, and only, because
one-half of the Patriot victims had Black skins, while the other half
had dared to fight by the side of the Blacks!

In the after-days of the War, the cry with which our Union Black
regiments went into battle:--"Remember Fort Pillow!"--inspired them to
deeds of valor, and struck with terror the hearts of the Enemy.  On many
a bloody field, Fort Pillow was avenged.

It is a common error to suppose that the first arming of the Black man
was on the Union side.  The first Black volunteer company was a Rebel
one, raised  early in May, 1861, in the city of Memphis, Tenn.; and at
Charleston, S. C., Lynchburg, Va., and Norfolk, Va., large bodies of
Free Negroes volunteered, and were engaged, earlier than that, to do
work on the Rebel batteries.

On June 28th of the same year, the Rebel Legislature of Tennessee passed
an Act not only authorizing the Governor "to receive into the Military
service of the State all male Free persons of Color between the ages of
fifteen and fifty, or such number as may be necessary, who may be sound
in mind and body, and capable of actual service," but also prescribing
"That in the event a sufficient number of Free persons of Color to meet
the wants of the State shall not tender their services, the Governor is
empowered, through the Sheriffs of the different counties, to press such
persons until the requisite number is obtained."

At a review of Rebel troops, at New Orleans, November 23, 1861, "One
regiment comprised 1,400 Free Colored men."  Vast numbers of both Free
Negroes and Slaves were employed to construct Rebel fortifications
throughout the War, in all the Rebel States.  And on the 17th of
February, 1864, the Rebel Congress passed an Act which provides in its
first section "That all male Free Negroes * * * resident in the
Confederate States, between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, shall
be held liable to perform such duties with the Army, or in connection
with the Military defenses of the Country, in the way of work upon the
fortifications, or in Government works for the production or preparation
of materials of War, or in Military hospitals, as the Secretary of War
or the Commanding General of the Trans-Mississippi Department may, from
time to time, prescribe:" while the third section provides that when the
Secretary of War shall "be unable to procure the service of Slaves in
any Military Department, then he is authorized to impress the services
of as many male Slaves, not to exceed twenty thousand, as may be
required, from time to time, to discharge the duties indicated in the
first section of the Act."

And this Act of, the Rebel Congress was passed only forty days before
the fiendish massacre of the Union Whites and Blacks who together, at
Fort Pillow, were performing for the Union, "such duties with the Army,"
and "in connection with the Military defenses of the Country," as had
been prescribed for them by their Commanding General!

Under any circumstances--and especially under this state of facts
--nothing could excuse or palliate that shocking and disgraceful and
barbarous crime against humanity; and the human mind is incapable of
understanding how such savagery can be accounted for, except upon the
theory that "He that nameth Rebellion nameth not a singular, or one only
sin, as is theft, robbery, murder, and such like; but he nameth the
whole puddle and sink of all sins against God and man; against his
country, his countrymen, his children, his kinsfolk, his friends, and
against all men universally; all sins against God and all men heaped
together, nameth he that nameth Rebellion."

The inconsistency of the Rebels, in getting insanely and murderously
furious over the arming of Negroes for the defense of the imperiled
Union and the newly gained liberties of the Black Race, when they had
themselves already armed some of them and made them fight to uphold the
Slave-holders' Rebellion and the continued Enslavement of their race, is
already plain enough.

     [The writer is indebted to the courtesy of a prominent South
     Carolinian, for calling his attention to the "Singular coincidence,
     that a South Carolinian should have proposed in 1778, what was
     executed in 1863-64--the arming of Negroes for achieving their
     Freedom"--as shown in the following very curious and interesting
     letters written by the brave and gifted Colonel John Laurens, of
     Washington's staff, to his distinguished father:

                         HEAD QUARTERS, 14th Jan., 1778.

     I barely hinted to you, my dearest father, my desire to augment the
     Continental forces from an untried source.  I wish I had any
     foundation to ask for an extraordinary addition to those favours
     which I have already received from you.  I would solicit you to
     cede me a number of your able bodied men slaves, instead of leaving
     me a fortune.

     I would bring about a two-fold good; first I would advance those
     who are unjustly deprived of the rights of mankind to a state which
     would be a proper gradation between abject slavery and perfect
     liberty, and besides I would reinforce the defenders of liberty
     with a number of gallant soldiers.  Men, who have the habit of
     subordination almost indelibly impressed on them, would have one
     very essential qualification of soldiers.  I am persuaded that if I
     could obtain authority for the purpose, I would have a corps of
     such men trained, uniformly clad, equip'd and ready in every
     respect to act at the opening of the next campaign.  The ridicule
     that may be thrown on the color, I despise, because I am sure of
     rendering essential service to my country.

     I am tired of the languor with which so sacred a war as this is
     carried on.  My circumstances prevent me from writing so long a
     letter as I expected and wish'd to have done on a subject which I
     have much at heart.  I entreat you to give a favorable answer to
                    Your most affectionate
                                   JOHN LAURENS.

     The Honble Henry Laurens Esq.
     President of Congress.


                         HEAD QUARTERS, 2nd Feb., 1778.

     My Dear Father:

     The more I reflect upon the difficulties and delays which are
     likely to attend the completing our Continental regiments, the more
     anxiously is my mind bent upon the scheme, which I lately
     communicated to you.  The obstacles to the execution of it had
     presented themselves to me, but by no means appeared
     insurmountable.  I was aware of having that monstrous popular
     prejudice, open-mouthed against me, of undertaking to transform
     beings almost irrational, into well disciplined soldiers, of being
     obliged to combat the arguments, and perhaps the intrigues, of
     interested persons.  But zeal for the public service, and an ardent
     desire to assert the rights of humanity, determined me to engage in
     this arduous business, with the sanction of your consent.  My own
     perseverance, aided by the countenance of a few virtuous men, will,
     I hope, enable me to accomplish it.

     You seem to think, my dear father, that men reconciled by long
     habit to the miseries of their condition, would prefer their
     ignominious bonds to the untasted sweets of liberty, especially
     when offer'd upon the terms which I propose.

     I confess, indeed, that the minds of this unhappy species must be
     debased by a servitude, from which they can hope for no relief but
     death, and that every motive to action but fear, must be nearly
     extinguished in them.  But do you think they are so perfectly
     moulded to their state as to be insensible that a better exists?
     Will the galling comparison between themselves and their masters
     leave them unenlightened in this respect?  Can their self love be
     so totally annihilated as not frequently to induce ardent wishes
     for a change?

     You will accuse me, perhaps, my dearest friend, of consulting my
     own feelings too much; but I am tempted to believe that this
     trampled people have so much human left in them, as to be capable
     of aspiring to the rights of men by noble exertions, if some friend
     to mankind would point the road, and give them a prospect of
     success.  If I am mistaken in this, I would avail myself, even of
     their weakness, and, conquering one fear by another, produce equal
     good to the public.  You will ask in this view, how do you consult
     the benefit of the slaves?  I answer, that like other men, they are
     creatures of habit.  Their cowardly ideas will be gradually
     effaced, and they will be modified anew.  Their being rescued from
     a state of perpetual humiliation, and being advanced as it were, in
     the scale of being, will compensate the dangers incident to their
     new state.

     The hope that will spring in each man's mind, respecting his own
     escape, will prevent his being miserable.  Those who fall in battle
     will not lose much; those who survive will obtain their reward.
     Habits of subordination, patience under fatigues, sufferings and
     privations of every kind, are soldierly qualifications, which these
     men possess in an eminent degree.

     Upon the whole, my dearest friend and father, I hope that my plan
     for serving my country and the oppressed negro race will not appear
     to you the chimera of a young mind, deceived by a false appearance
     of moral beauty, but a laudable sacrifice of private interest, to
     justice and the public good.

     You say, that my resources would be small, on account of the
     proportion of women and children.  I do not know whether I am
     right, for I speak from impulse, and have not reasoned upon the
     matter.  I say, altho' my plan is at once to give freedom to the
     negroes, and gain soldiers to the states; in case of concurrence, I
     should sacrifice the former interest, and therefore we change the
     women and children for able-bodied men.  The more of these I could
     obtain, the better; but forty might be a good foundation to begin
     upon.

     It is a pity that some such plan as I propose could not be more
     extensively executed by public authority.  A well-chosen body of
     5,000 black men, properly officer'd, to act as light troops, in
     addition to our present establishment, might give us decisive
     success in the next campaign.

     I have long deplored the wretched state of these men, and
     considered in their history, the bloody wars excited in Africa, to
     furnish America with slaves--the groans of despairing multitudes,
     toiling for the luxuries of merciless tyrants.

     I have had the pleasure of conversing with you, sometimes, upon the
     means of restoring them to their rights.  When can it be better
     done, than when their enfranchisement may be made conducive to the
     public good, and be modified, as not to overpower their weak minds?

     You ask, what is the general's opinion, upon this subject?  He is
     convinced, that the numerous tribes of blacks in the southern parts
     of the continent, offer a resource to us that should not be
     neglected.  With respect to my particular plan, he only objects to
     it, with the arguments of pity for a man who would be less rich
     than he might be.

     I am obliged, my dearest friend and father, to take my leave for
     the present; you will excuse whatever exceptionable may have
     escaped in the course of my letter, and accept the assurance of
     filial love, and respect of
                         Your
                              JOHN LAURENS]

If, however, it be objected that the arming of Negroes by the Rebels was
exceptional and local, and, that otherwise, the Rebels always used their
volunteer or impressed Negro forces in work upon fortifications and
other unarmed Military Works, and never proposed using them in the clash
of arms, as armed soldiers against armed White men, the contrary is
easily proven.

In a message to the Rebel Congress, November 7, 1864, Jefferson Davis
himself, while dissenting at that time from the policy, advanced by
many, of "a general levy and arming of the Slaves, for the duty of
soldiers," none the less declared that "should the alternative ever be
presented of subjugation, or of the employment of the Slave as a
soldier, there seems no reason to doubt what should then be our
decision."

In the meantime, however, he recommended the employment of forty
thousand Slaves as pioneer and engineer laborers, on the ground that
"even this limited number, by their preparatory training in intermediate
duties Would form a more valuable reserve force in case of urgency, than
threefold their number suddenly called from field labor; while a fresh
levy could, to a certain extent, supply their places in the special
service" of pioneer and engineer work; and he undertook to justify the
inconsistency between his present recommendation, and his past attitude,
by declaring that "A broad, moral distinction exists between the use of
Slaves as soldiers in defense of their homes, and the incitement of the
same persons to insurrection against their masters, for," said he, "the
one is justifiable, if necessary; the other is iniquitous and unworthy
of a civilized people."

So also, while a Bill for the arming of Slaves was pending before the
Rebel Congress early in 1865, General Robert E. Lee wrote, February
18th, from the Headquarters of the Rebel Armies, to Hon. E. Barksdale,
of the Rebel House of Representatives, a communication, in which, after
acknowledging the receipt of a letter from him of February 12th, "with
reference to the employment of Negroes as soldiers," he said: "I think
the Measure not only expedient but necessary * * * in my opinion, the
Negroes, under proper circumstances, will make efficient soldiers.  * *
*  I think those who are employed, should be freed.  It would be neither
just nor wise, in my opinion, to require them to remain as Slaves"
--thus, not only approving the employment of Black Slaves as soldiers, to
fight White Union men, but justifying their Emancipation as a reward for
Military service.  And, a few days afterward, that Rebel Congress passed
a Bill authorizing Jefferson Davis to take into the Rebel Army as many
Negro Slaves "as he may deem expedient, for and during the War, to
perform Military service in whatever capacity he may direct," and at the
same time authorizing General Lee to organize them as other "troops" are
organized.

     [This Negro soldier Bill, according to McPherson's Appendix, p.
     611-612, passed both Houses, and was in these words:

     A Bill to increase the Military Forces of the Confederate States.

     "The Congress of the Confederate States of America do Enact, That
     in order to provide additional forces to repel invasion, maintain
     the rightful possession of the Confederate States, secure their
     Independence and preserve their Institutions, the President be and
     he is hereby authorized to ask for and accept from the owners of
     Slaves the services of such number of able-bodied Negro men as he
     may deem expedient for and during the War, to perform Military
     service in whatever capacity he may direct.

     "SEC. 2.--That the General-in-Chief be authorized to organize the
     said Slaves into companies, battalions, regiments, and brigades,
     under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War may
     prescribe, and to be commanded by such officers as the President
     may appoint.

     "SEC. 3.--That, while employed in the Service, the said troops
     shall receive the same rations, clothing, and compensation as are
     allowed to other troops in the same branch of the Service.

     "SEC. 4.--That if, under the previous sections of this Act, the
     President shall not be able to raise a sufficient number of troops
     to prosecute the War successfully and maintain the Sovereignty of
     the States, and the Independence of the Confederate States, then he
     is hereby authorized to call on each State, whenever he thinks it
     expedient, for her quota of 300,000 troops, in addition to those
     subject to Military service, under existing laws, or so many
     thereof as the President may deem necessary, to be raised from such
     classes of the population, irrespective of color, in each State, as
     the proper authorities thereof may determine: Provided, that not
     more than 25 per cent. of the male Slaves, between the ages of 18
     and 45, in any State, shall be called for under the provisions of
     this Act.

     "SEC. 5.--That nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize
     a change in the relation of said Slaves."]