Soon after the chalk sketch of my conception had been placed upon the
canvas, I attended one of the receptions given by the Secretary of the
Navy and Mrs. Welles. While standing as I thought unobserved, near a
corner of the room, Mr. Seward approached me, and in a manner of more
than usual warmth, said, “I told the President the other day that you
were painting your picture upon a false presumption.” Looking at him in
some surprise, I inquired his meaning. “Oh,” he rejoined, “you appear
to think in common with many other foolish people, that the great
business of this Administration is the destruction of slavery. Now
allow me to say you are much mistaken. Slavery was killed years ago.
Its death knell was tolled when Abraham Lincoln was elected President.
The work of this Administration is the suppression of the Rebellion
and the preservation of the Union. Abolitionists, like the different
religious sects, have been chasing one idea, until they have come to
believe that their horizon absolutely bounds the world. Slavery has
been in fact but an incident in the history of the nation, inevitably
bound to perish in the progress of intelligence. Future generations
will scarcely credit the record that such an institution ever existed
here; or existing, that it ever lived a day under such a government.
But suppose, for one moment, the Republic destroyed. With it is bound
up not alone the destiny of a race, but the best hopes of all mankind.
With its overthrow the sun of liberty, like the Hebrew dial, would
be set back indefinitely. The magnitude of such a calamity is beyond
our calculation. The salvation of the nation is, then, of vastly more
consequence than the destruction of slavery. Had you consulted me for
a subject to paint, I should not have given you the Cabinet Council
on Emancipation, but the meeting which took place when the news came
of the attack upon Sumter, when the first measures were organized for
the restoration of the national authority. That was the crisis in the
history of this Administration--not the issue of the Emancipation
Proclamation. If I am to be remembered by posterity,” he concluded,
with much excitement of manner, “let it not be as having loved
predominantly white men or black men, but as one who loved his country.”
Assenting to much that he had said, I replied, that with all deference,
I could not accept his conclusions regarding slavery. Although more
than a year had passed since the issue of the proclamation, the
Confederacy, founded upon it, was yet powerful enough to threaten
the destruction of the nation, though, for my own part, I did not
question the result of the conflict. I looked upon the Declaration
of Independence as the _assertion_ that all men were created free.
Mr. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was the _demonstration_ of
this great truth. Without slavery the Republic would have been in
no danger. That was the canker-worm gnawing away the nation’s life.
Not until the Administration was ready to strike at the root and
cause of the Rebellion, was there any reason to hope for the success
of the national cause. Without this step, however grand or high the
conception in the minds of men of the Republic, in all probability
it would have perished. Therefore, in my judgment, no single act
of the Administration could for one moment be compared with that
of emancipation. Granting the potential view, the proclamation was
necessary, as the sign and seal of the consummation.
“Well,” replied Mr. Seward, “you think so, and this generation may
agree with you; but posterity will hold a different opinion.”
Of course this conversation could not but attract the attention of
all in the immediate vicinity. A few moments later, Senator Morgan,
referring to the Secretary’s assertion that slavery was dead when
the Rebellion broke out, told me this characteristic incident of the
President, showing that he, at least, did not hold that view. Soon
after the issue of the proclamation, having official business, as
Governor of New York, which called him to Washington, Mr. Lincoln
remarked to him, speaking of his action upon this subject, “We are a
good deal like whalers who have been long on a chase. At last we have
got our harpoon fairly into the monster; but we must now look how we
steer, or with one _flop_ of his tail, he will yet send us all into
eternity!”