Mr. Chase told me that at the Cabinet meeting, immediately after the
battle of Antietam, and just prior to the issue of the September
Proclamation, the President entered upon the business before them,
by saying that “the time for the annunciation of the emancipation
policy could be no longer delayed. Public sentiment,” he thought,
“would sustain it--many of his warmest friends and supporters demanded
it--_and he had promised his God that he would do it_!” The last part
of this was uttered in a low tone, and appeared to be heard by no one
but Secretary Chase, who was sitting near him. He asked the President
if he correctly understood him. Mr. Lincoln replied: “_I made a solemn
vow before God, that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania,
I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves._”
In February 1865, a few days after the passage of the “Constitutional
Amendment,” I went to Washington, and was received by Mr. Lincoln with
the kindness and familiarity which had characterized our previous
intercourse. I said to him at this time that I was very proud to have
been the artist to have first conceived of the design of painting a
picture commemorative of the Act of Emancipation; that subsequent
occurrences had only confirmed my own first judgment of that act as the
most sublime moral event in our history. “Yes,” said he,--and never
do I remember to have noticed in him more earnestness of expression
or manner,--“as affairs have turned, _it is the central act of my
administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century_.”