The potency of the Emancipation Act was so patent to the least
politician that, long before 1863, when its announcement opened the
memorable year for freedom, not only had its demonstration been
implored by his friends, but some of his subordinates had tried to
launch its lightning with not so impersonal a sentiment. To a religious
body, pressing him to verify his title of Abolitionist, he replied:
"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."
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