When the Proclamation of Emancipation, of January 1, 1863, was issued,
the closing sentence attracted universal attention, and in every part
of the world encomiums were pronounced upon it. The words are these:
"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." Following the appearance of the Proclamation, and stimulated,
possibly, by the reception given to the sentence quoted, there appeared
claimants for the verbal authorship of the passage, or for suggestions
which led to its writing by Mr. Lincoln.
A claim for exact authorship was set up for Mr. Chase, and claims for
suggestions in the nature of exact authorship were made in behalf of
Mr. Seward and in behalf of Mr. Sumner.
The sentence quoted was furnished by Mr. Chase, after a very material
alteration by the President. He introduced the words, _"warranted by
the Constitution upon military necessity,"_ in place of the phrase,
_"and of duty demanded by the circumstances of the country,"_ as
written by Mr. Chase.
The main credit for the introduction of the fortunate phrase is due to
Secretary Chase. President Lincoln placed the act upon a legal basis,
justifying it in law and in history. The sentence is what we might
have expected from the head and heart of the man who wrote the final
sentence of the first inaugural address: "The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every
living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet
swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
be, by the better angels of our nature." Mr. Lincoln had genius for
the work of composition, and the poetic quality was strong and it was
often exhibited in his speeches and writings. The omission of the
sentence in question would so mar the Proclamation that it would cease
to represent Mr. Lincoln. Thus he became under great obligations to
Mr. Chase.
It was not in the nature of Mr. Lincoln to close a state paper, which
he could not but have realized was to take a place by the side of the
Declaration of Independence, with a bald statement that the freedmen
would 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."
In the month of October, 1863, the ladies of Chicago made a request of
Mr. Lincoln for "the original" of his "proclamation of freedom," the
same to be disposed of "for the benefit of the soldiers." The letter
in their behalf was written by Mr. Arnold, who was then a member of
Congress. Improvidently, I think we may say, Mr. Lincoln yielded to
their request for the original draft of the Proclamation to be sold
for the benefit of the fair. Its transmission was accompanied by a
letter, written by Mr. Lincoln.
"EXECUTIVE MANSION,
"WASHINGTON,
"_October_ 26, 1863.
_"Ladies having in charge The North Western Fair for the Sanitary
Commission, Chicago, Ill._
"According to the request made in your behalf, the original draft of
the Emancipation Proclamation is herewith enclosed. The formal words
at the top and at the conclusion, except the signature, you perceive,
are not in my handwriting. They were written at the State Department,
by whom I know not. The printed part was cut from a copy of the
preliminary Proclamation and pasted on merely to save writing.
"I have some desire to retain the paper, but if it shall contribute
to the relief of the soldiers, that would be better.
"Your obt. servt.,
"A. LINCOLN."
In technical strictness the original Proclamation was of the archives
of the Department of State when the signature of the President and
Secretary of State had been affixed thereto, and its transfer by Mr.
Lincoln was an act not within his competency as President, or as the
author of the Proclamation.
This point, however, is wholly speculative, but the country and
posterity will be interested in the fate of the original of a document
which is as immortal as the Declaration of Independence. The
Proclamation was sold to the Honorable Thomas B. Bryan of Chicago for
the sum of three thousand dollars and it was then presented by him to
the Soldiers' Home of Chicago, of which he was then President. That
position he still retains. The document was deposited in the rooms of
the Chicago Historical Society, where it was destroyed in the great
fire of 1871.
Fortunately the managers of the fair had secured the preparation of
_fac simile_ copies of the Proclamation. These were sold in large
numbers, and thus many thousands of dollars were added to the receipts
of the fair.
The managers of the Soldiers' Home were offered twenty-five thousand
dollars for the original Proclamation.* The offer came from a
showman who expected to reimburse himself by the exhibition of the
paper.
The original now on the files of the State Department is not in the
handwriting of Mr. Lincoln and it has therefore no value derived from
Mr. Lincoln's personality.
When I entered upon this inquiry, which has resulted in the preparation
of this paper, I was ignorant of the fact that the original
Proclamation had been destroyed, and it was my purpose to secure its
return to the archives of the Department of State. That is now
impossible. Its destruction has given value to the _fac simile_
copies. Many thousands of them are in the possession of citizens of
the United States, and they will be preserved and transmitted as
souvenirs of the greatest act of the most illustrious American of this
century.
In the early autumn of 1864 a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall in
honor of the capture of Atlanta by the army under General Sherman, and
the battle in Mobile Bay under the lead of Admiral Farragut. Strange
as the fact may now appear, those historical events were not accepted
with satisfaction by all the citizens of Boston. The leading
Democratic papers gave that kind of advice that may be found, usually,
in the columns of hostile journals, when passing events are unfriendly,
or when there is an adverse trend of public opinion. Hard words should
not be used and nothing should be said of a partisan character. Such
was the advice, and a large body of men assembled who were opposed to
partisan speeches. They were known as the McClellan Club of the
North End of Boston and they were sufficient in numbers, when standing,
to fill the main floor in front of the rostrum, which at that time was
not provided with seats. The meeting was called by Republicans and it
was conducted under the auspices of Republicans. Governor Andrew was
to preside and Governor Everett, with others, had been invited to
speak. Governor Andrew was not blessed with a commanding voice and it
was drowned or smothered by the hisses, cheers and cat-call cries of
the hostile audience in front of him. The efforts of the sympathetic
audience in the galleries were of no avail. Mr. Everett's letter was
then read, but not a sentence of it was understood by any person in the
assembly. Next came Mr. Sennott, an Irishman, a lawyer, and a man of
large learning in knowledge and attainments not adapted to general use.
He had then but recently abandoned the Democratic Party, but there was
a stain upon his reputation, traceable to the fact that in the year
1859 he had volunteered to aid in the legal defence of John Brown at
Harper's Ferry. The city of Boston could not have offered a person
less acceptable to the crowd in front of the speaker. Mr. Sennott's
voice was weak and of the art of using what power he possessed he had
no knowledge. His speech was not heard by anyone in the assembly.
By the arrangement I was to follow Mr. Sennott. I had had some
experience with hostile audiences, and in the year 1862 I had been
interrupted in a country town of Massachusetts by stones thrown
through the windows of a hall in which I was speaking upon the war and
the administration.
As I sat upon the platform I studied my audience and I resolved upon my
course. I had one fixed resolution--I should get a hearing or I should
spend the night in the hall. Something of the character of my
reception and the results reached may be gained from the report of the
Boston _Journal_, and I copy the report without alteration, premising
however that some minutes passed before I secured a quiet hearing.