THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIONS.
CONGRESS PASSES AN ACT TO CONFISCATE PROPERTY USED FOR
INSURRECTIONARY PURPOSES.--A FRUITLESS APPEAL TO THE PRESIDENT TO
ISSUE AN EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.--HE THINKS THE TIME NOT YET
COME FOR SUCH AN ACTION, BUT WITHIN A FEW WEEKS CHANGES HIS
OPINION AND ISSUES AN EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.--THE REBELS SHOW
NO DISPOSITION TO ACCEPT THE MILD TERMS OF THE PROCLAMATION.--MR.
DAVIS GIVES ATTENTION TO THE PROCLAMATION IN HIS THIRD ANNUAL
MESSAGE.--SECOND EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ISSUED BY PRESIDENT
LINCOLN JANUARY 1, 1863.--THE PROCLAMATION IMPARTS NEW HOPE TO
THE NEGRO.
The position taken by General Butler on the question of receiving into
the Federal lines the slaves of persons who were in rebellion against
the National Government, and who were liable to be used in service
against the government by their owners, had its due influence in
Washington. But all the general officers did not share in the views of
General Butler. As many as twenty Union generals still had it in their
minds that it was the duty of the army "to catch run-away slaves"; and
they afforded rebels every facility to search their camps. They
arrested fugitive Negroes and held them subject to the order of their
masters. Congress was not long in seeing the suicidal tendency of such
a policy, and on the 6th of August, 1861, passed "An Act to Confiscate
Property Used for Insurrectionary Purposes." Notwithstanding this act,
General McClellan and other officers still clung to the obsolete
doctrine of "the sacredness of slave property." His conduct finally
called forth the following letter from the Secretary of State:
"CONTRABANDS IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, }
"WASHINGTON CITY, December 4, 1861. }
"_To Major-General George B. McClellan, Washington_:
"GENERAL: I am directed by the President to call your attention
to the following subject:
"Persons claimed to be held to service or labor under the laws of
the State of Virginia, and actually employed in hostile service
against the Government of the United States, frequently escape
from the lines of the enemy's forces and are received within the
lines of the Army of the Potomac. This Department understands
that such persons, afterward coming into the city of Washington,
are liable to be arrested by the city police, upon presumption,
arising from color, that they are fugitives from service or
labor.
"By the fourth section of the act of Congress, approved August 6,
1861, entitled 'An Act to Confiscate Property Used for
Insurrectionary Purposes,' such hostile employment is made a full
and sufficient answer to any further claim to service or labor.
Persons thus employed and escaping are received into the military
protection of the United States, and their arrest as fugitives
from service or labor should be immediately followed by the
military arrest of the parties making the seizure.
"Copies of this communication will be sent to the Mayor of the
City of Washington and to the Marshal of the District of
Columbia, that any collision between the civil and military
authorities may be avoided.
"I am, General, your very obedient,
"WM. H. SEWARD."
It was now 1862. The dark war clouds were growing thicker. The Union
army had won but few victories; our troops had to fight a tropical
climate, the forces of nature, and an arrogant, jubilant, and
victorious enemy. Autumn had come but nothing had been accomplished.
The friends of the Union who favored a speedy and vigorous prosecution
of the war, besieged the President with letters, memorials, and
addresses to "_do something_." But intrenched behind his
"constitutional views" of how the war should be managed he heard all,
but would pot yield. On the 13th of September, 1862, a deputation of
gentlemen, representing the various Protestant denominations of
Chicago, called upon the President and urged him to adopt a vigorous
policy of emancipation as the only way to save the Union; but he
denied the request. He said:
"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
come 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? Gen. 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 Gen. 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 objection 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."
Not discouraged, the deputation urged in answer to his conservative
views, that a policy of emancipation would strengthen the cause of the
Union in Europe, and place the government upon high humane grounds,
where it could boldly and confidently appeal to Almighty God in an
honest attempt to save His poor children from the degrading curse of
American slavery. But the President replied:
"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; 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 fifty thousand
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."[90]
But there were millions of prayers ascending to the God of Battles
daily that the President might have the courage and disposition to
pursue a course required by the lamentable condition of the Union. And
just nine days from the time he thought a proclamation not warranted
and impracticable, he issued the following:
"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 the 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 State 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.
"That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled
'An Act to make an additional Article of War,' approved March
13th, 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:
"'SECTION 1. 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 of a court-martial
of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.
"'SEC. 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 16, 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 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.
[L. S.] "ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
"By the President:
"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_."
But why this change in the views of the President? History, thus far,
is left to conjecture. It was hinted that our embassadors in Western
Europe had apprised the State Department at Washington that an early
recognition of the Southern Confederacy was possible, even probable.
It was also stated that he was waiting for the issue at the battle of
Antietam, which was fought on the 17th--five days before the
proclamation was issued. But neither explanation stands in the light
of the positive and explicit language of the President on the 13th of
September. However, he issued the proclamation,--the Divine Being may
have opened his eyes to see the angel that was to turn him aside from
the destruction that awaited the Union that he sought to save with
slavery preserved!
The sentiment of the people upon the wisdom of the proclamation was
expressed in the October elections. New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois went democratic; while the
supporters of the Administration fell off in Michigan and other
Western States. In the Congress of 1860 there were 78 Republicans and
37 Democrats; in 1862 there were 57 Administration representatives,
and 67 in the Opposition.
The army did not take kindly to the proclamation. It was charged that
"the war for the Union was changed into a war for the Negro." Some
officers resigned, while many others said that if they _thought_ they
were fighting to free the "niggers" they would resign. This sentiment
was contagious. It found its way into the rank and file of the troops,
and did no little harm. The following telegram shows that the rebels
were angered not a little at the President:
"CHARLESTON, S. C., Oct. 13, 1862.
"HON. WM. P. MILES, Richmond, Va.:
"Has the bill for the execution of Abolition prisoners, after
January next, been passed? Do it; and England will be stirred
into action. It is high time to proclaim the black flag after
that period. Let the execution be with the garrote.
"(Signed) G. T. BEAUREGARD."
But the proclamation was a harmless measure. _First_, it declared that
the object of the war was to restore "the constitutional relation
between the United States and each of the States." After nearly two
years of disastrous war Mr. Lincoln declares the object of the war.
Certainly no loyal man had ever entertained any other idea than the
one expressed in the proclamation. It was not a war on the part of the
United States to destroy her children, nor to disturb her own
constitutional, comprehensive unity. It must have been understood,
then, from the commencement, that the war begun by the seceding States
was waged on the part of the United States to preserve the _Union of
the States_, and restore them to their "constitutional relation."
_Second_, the proclamation implored the slave States to accept
(certainly in the spirit of compromise) a proposition from the United
States to emancipate their slaves for a _pecuniary consideration_,
and, by their gracious consent, assist in _colonizing_ loyal Negroes
in this country or in Africa!
_Third_, the measure proposed to free slaves of persons and States in
rebellion against the lawful authority of the United States Government
on the first day of January, 1863. Nothing more difficult could have
been undertaken than to free _only_ the slaves of persons and States
in _actual_ rebellion against the Government of the United States.
Persons in _actual_ rebellion would be _most_ likely to have immediate
oversight of this species of their property; and the owners of slaves
in the States in _actual_ rebellion against the United States
Government would doubtless be as thoroughly prepared to take care of
slave property as the muskets in their rebellious hands.
_Fourth_, this emancipation proclamation (?) proposed to pay out of
the United States Treasury,--for all slaves of loyal masters lost in a
rebellion begun by slave-holders and carried on by slave-holders!
Under the condition of affairs no emancipation proclamation was
necessary. Treason against the United States is "levying war against
them," or "adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."
The rebel States were guilty of treason; and from the moment Sumter
was fired upon, every slave in the Confederate States was _ipso facto_
free!
But it was an occasion for rejoicing. The President had taken a step
in the right direction, and, thank God! he never retraced it.
A severe winter had set in. The rebels had shown the kind-hearted
President no disposition to accept the mild terms of his proclamation.
On the contrary, it was received with gnashing of teeth and bitter
imprecations. On the 12th of January, 1863, the titular President of
the Confederate States, in his third Annual Message, gave attention to
the proclamation of the President of the United States. Mr. Davis
said:
"It has established a state of things which can lead to but one
of three possible consequences--the extermination of the slaves,
the exile of the whole white population of the Confederacy, or
absolute and total separation of these States from the United
States. This proclamation is also an authentic statement by the
Government of the United States of its inability to subjugate the
South by force of arms, and, as such, must be accepted by neutral
nations, which can no longer find any justification in
withholding our just claims to formal recognition. It is also, in
effect, an intimation to the people of the North that they must
prepare to submit to a separation now become inevitable; for that
people are too acute not to understand that a restitution of the
Union has been rendered forever impossible by the adoption of a
measure which, from its very nature, neither admits of retraction
nor can coexist with union.
* * * * *
"We may well leave it to the instincts of that common humanity
which a beneficent Creator has implanted in the breasts of our
fellow-men of all countries to pass judgment on a measure by
which several millions of human beings of an inferior
race--peaceful and contented laborers in their sphere--are doomed
to extermination, while at the same time they are encouraged to a
general assassination of their masters by the insidious
recommendation to abstain from violence unless in necessary
self-defense. Our own detestation of those who have attempted the
most execrable measures recorded in the history of guilty man is
tempered by profound contempt for the impotent rage which it
discloses. So far as regards the action of this Government on
such criminals as may attempt its execution, I confine myself to
informing you that I shall--unless in your wisdom you deem some
other course more expedient--deliver to the several State
authorities all commissioned officers of the United States that
may hereafter be captured by our forces in any of the States
embraced in the proclamation, that they may be dealt with in
accordance with the laws of those States providing for the
punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection.
The enlisted soldiers I shall continue to treat as unwilling
instruments in the commission of these crimes, and shall direct
their discharge and return to their homes on the proper and usual
parole."
And although the President and his supporters had not reaped the
blessings their hopes had sown, they were, nevertheless, not without
hope. For when the sober second thought of the nation took the place
of prejudice and undue excitement, the proclamation had more friends.
And so, in keeping with his promise, the President issued the
following proclamation on the first of January, 1863.
"_Whereas_, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord
1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United
States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"'That on the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863,
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 State 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,
Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, 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 Anne, 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-defense; 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 testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.
"Done at the City of Washington, this 1st day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1863, and of the independence of the United
States the 87th.
[L. S.]
"By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_."
Even this proclamation--not a measure of humanity--to save the Union,
not the slave--left slaves in many counties and States at the South.
It was a war measure, pure and simple. It was a blow aimed at the most
vulnerable part of the Confederacy. It was destroying its
corner-stone, and the ponderous fabric was doomed to a speedy and
complete destruction. It discovered that the strength of this Sampson
of rebellion lay in its vast slave population. To the slave the
proclamation came as the song of the rejoicing angels to the shepherds
upon the plains of Bethlehem. It was like music at night, mellowed by
the distance, that rouses slumbering hopes, gives wings to fancy, and
peoples the brain with blissful thoughts. The notes of freedom came
careering to them across the red, billowy waves of battle and thrilled
their souls with ecstatic peace. Old men who, like Samuel the prophet,
believing the ark of God in the hands of the Philistines, and were
ready to give up the ghost, felt that it was just the time to begin to
live. Husbands were transported with the thought of gathering to their
bosoms the wife that had been sold to the "nigger traders"; mothers
swooned under the tender touch of the thought of holding in loving
embrace the children who pined for their care; and young men and
maidens could only "think thanksgiving and weep gladness."
The slave-holder saw in this proclamation the handwriting upon the
walls of the institution of slavery. The brightness and revelry of his
banqueting halls were to be succeeded by gloom and sorrow. His riches,
consisting in human beings, were to disappear under the magic touch of
the instrument of freedom. The chattel was to be transformed into a
person, the person into a soldier, the soldier into a citizen--and
thus the Negro slave, like the crawling caterpillar, was to leave his
grovelling situation, and in new form, wing himself to the sublime
heights of free American citizenship!
The Negroes had a marvellous facility of communicating news to each
other. The proclamation, in spite of the precautions of the rebel
authorities, took to itself wings. It came to the plantation of weary
slaves as the glorious light of a new-born day. It flooded the hovels
of slaves with its golden light and rich promise of "_forever free_."
Like St. Paul the poor slaves could exclaim:
"In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in
watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by
long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love
unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the
armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by
honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers,
and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and,
behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet
alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things."
And the significant name of Abraham--"father of the faithful"--was
pronounced by the Negroes with blessings, and mingled in their songs
of praise.
FOOTNOTES:
[90] Greeley, vol. ii. pp. 251, 252.