Lincoln and Slavery--Plan for Gradual Emancipation--Anti-slavery
Legislation in 1862--Pressure Brought to Bear on the Executive--The
Delegation of Quakers--A Visit from Chicago Clergymen--Interview
between Lincoln and Channing--Lincoln and Horace Greeley--The
President's Answer to "The Prayer of Twenty Millions of
People"--Conference between Lincoln and Greeley--Emancipation
Resolved on--The Preliminary Proclamation--Lincoln's Account of
It--Preparing for the Final Act--The Emancipation
Proclamation--Particulars of the Great Document--Fate of the
Original Draft--Lincoln's Outline of his Course and Views regarding
Slavery.
The emancipation of slaves in America--the crowning act of Lincoln's
eventful career and the one with which his fame is most indissolubly
linked--is a subject of supreme interest in a study of his life and
character. For this great act all his previous life and training had
been but a preparation. From the first awakening of his convictions of
the moral wrong of human slavery, through all his public and private
utterances, may be traced one logical and consistent development of the
principles which at last found sublime expression in the Proclamation of
Emancipation. In this, as always, he was true to his own inner
promptings. He would not be hurried or worried or badgered into
premature and impracticable measures. He bided his time; and when that
time came the deed was done, unalterably and irrevocably: approved by
the logic of events, and by the enlightened conscience of the world.
The final Emancipation Proclamation was issued on the first day of
January, 1863. The various official measures that preceded it may be
briefly sketched, together with closely related incidents. As early as
the autumn of 1861 the problem of the relation of the war to slavery was
brought forcibly to the President's attention by the action of General
J.C. Frémont, the Union commander in Missouri, who issued an order
declaring the slaves of rebels in his department free. The order was
premature and unauthorized, and the President promptly annulled it.
General Frémont was thus, in a sense, the pioneer in military
emancipation; and he lived to see the policy proposed by him carried
into practical operation by all our armies. Lincoln afterwards said: "I
have great respect for General Frémont and his abilities, but the fact
is that the pioneer in any movement is not generally the best man to
carry that movement to a successful issue. It was so in old times; Moses
began the emancipation of the Jews, but didn't take Israel to the
Promised Land after all. He had to make way for Joshua to complete the
work. It looks as if the first reformer of a thing has to meet such a
hard opposition and gets so battered and bespattered that afterward when
people find they have to accept his reform they will accept it more
easily from another man."
Lincoln at first favored a policy of gradual emancipation. In a special
message to Congress, on the 6th of March, 1862, he proposed such a plan
for the abolition of slavery. "In my judgment," he remarked, "gradual,
and not sudden, emancipation is better for all." He suggested to
Congress the adoption of a joint resolution declaring "that the United
States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual
abolition of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid to compensate
for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of
system." In conclusion he urged: "In full view of my great
responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the
attention of Congress and the people to this subject."
On the 16th of April of this year, Congress passed a bill abolishing
slavery in the District of Columbia--a measure for which Lincoln had
himself introduced a bill while a member of Congress. In confirming the
act as President, he remarked privately: "Little did I dream in 1849,
when as a member of Congress I proposed to abolish slavery at this
capital, and could scarcely get a hearing for the proposition, that it
would be so soon accomplished."
Emancipation measures moved rapidly in 1862. On June 19 Congress enacted
a measure prohibiting slavery forever in all present and future
territories of the United States. July 17 a law was passed authorizing
the employment of negroes as soldiers, and conferring freedom on all who
should render military service, and on the families of all such as
belonged to disloyal owners. Two days later, in a conference appointed
by him at the Executive Mansion, the President submitted to the members
of Congress from the Border States a written appeal, in which he said:
Believing that you, in the border States, hold more power for good
than any other equal number of members, I feel it a duty which I
cannot justifiably waive, to make this appeal to you.... I intend
no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my opinion, if
you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual emancipation
message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended.
And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and
swift means of ending it. Let the States which are in rebellion see
definitely and certainly that in no event will the States you
represent ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot
much longer maintain the contest.... If the war continues long, as
it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in
your States will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion, by
the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have
nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already.
How much better for you and for your people to take the step which
at once shortens the war and secures substantial compensation for
that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event! How much
better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the
war! How much better to do it while we can, lest the war ere long
render us pecuniarily unable to do it! How much better for you as
seller, and the nation as buyer, to sell out and buy out that
without which the war could never have been, than to sink both the
thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting one another's
throats!... I do not speak of emancipation _at once_, but of a
_decision_ to emancipate _gradually_.... Upon these considerations
I have again begged your attention to the message of March last.
Before leaving the capital, consider and discuss it among
yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such I pray you
consider this proposition, and at the least commend it to the
consideration of your States and people. As you would perpetuate
popular government for the best people in the world, I beseech you
that you do in nowise omit this. Our common country is in great
peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a
speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to
the world, its beloved history and cherished memories are
vindicated, and its happy future fully assured and rendered
inconceivably grand. To you, more than any others, the privilege is
given to assure that happiness and swell that grandeur, and to link
your own names therewith forever.
In an interview with Mr. Lovejoy and Mr. Arnold, of Illinois, the day
following this conference, Lincoln exclaimed: "Oh, how I wish the
border States would accept my proposition! Then you, Lovejoy, and you,
Arnold, and all of us, would not have lived in vain! The labor of your
life, Lovejoy, would be crowned with success. You would live to see the
end of slavery."
The first occasion on which the President definitely discussed
emancipation plans with members of his Cabinet, according to Secretary
Welles, was on the 13th of July, 1862. On that day, says Mr. Welles,
"President Lincoln invited me to accompany him in his carriage to the
funeral of an infant child of Mr. Stanton. Secretary Seward and Mrs.
Frederick Seward were also in the carriage. Mr. Stanton occupied at that
time for a summer residence the house of a naval officer, some two or
three miles west or northwest of Georgetown. It was on this occasion and
on this ride that he first mentioned to Mr. Seward and myself the
subject of emancipating the slaves by proclamation in case the Rebels
did not cease to persist in their war on the Government and the Union,
of which he saw no evidence. He dwelt earnestly on the gravity,
importance, and delicacy of the movement; said he had given it much
thought, and had about come to the conclusion that it was a military
necessity absolutely essential for the salvation of the Union; that we
must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued, etc.... This was, the
President said, the first occasion when he had mentioned the subject to
anyone, and wished us to frankly state how the proposition struck us.
Mr. Seward said the subject involved consequences so vast and momentous
that he should wish to bestow on it mature reflection before giving a
decisive answer; but his present opinion inclined to the measure as
justifiable, and perhaps he might say expedient and necessary. These
were also my views. Two or three times on that ride the subject, which
was of course an absorbing one for each and all, was adverted to; and
before separating, the President desired us to give the question special
and deliberate attention, for he was earnest in the conviction that
something must be done. It was a new departure for the President, for
until this time, in all our previous interviews, whenever the question
of emancipation or the mitigation of slavery had been in any way alluded
to, he had been prompt and emphatic in denouncing any interference by
the General Government with the subject. This was, I think, the
sentiment of every member of the Cabinet, all of whom, including the
President, considered it a local, domestic question, appertaining to the
States respectively, who had never parted with their authority over it.
But the reverses before Richmond, and the formidable power and
dimensions of the insurrection, which extended through all the Slave
States, and had combined most of them in a confederacy to destroy the
Union, impelled the Administration to adopt extraordinary measures to
preserve the national existence. The slaves, if not armed and
disciplined, were in the service of those who were, not only as field
laborers and producers, but thousands of them were in attendance upon
the armies in the field, employed as waiters and teamsters, and the
fortifications and intrenchments were constructed by them."
It has been shown again and again, by the words of Lincoln and by the
testimony of his friends, that he heartily detested the practice of
slavery, and would joyfully have set every bondman free. Before his
nomination for the Presidency--indeed, from the very beginning of his
public life--he had repeatedly put himself on record as opposed to
slavery, but perhaps nowhere more tersely and unequivocally than in
these words: "There is no reason in the world why the negro is not
entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
Independence--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
_I hold that he is as much entitled to them as the white man._" But his
respect for the laws of the land deterred him from measures that might
seem of doubtful constitutionality, and he waited patiently until the
right hour had struck before he issued the edict of emancipation so
eagerly demanded by a large class of earnest and loyal people at the
North. Many of these people, misunderstanding his views and intentions,
were very impatient; and their criticisms and expostulations were a
constant burden to the sorely tried Executive.
In June of this year (1862) the President was waited on by a deputation
of Quakers, or Friends, fifteen or twenty in number, who had been
charged by the Yearly Meeting of their association to present a "minute"
to the President on the subject of slavery and the duty of immediate
emancipation. The visit of these excellent people was not altogether
timely. Bad news had been received from McClellan's army on the
Peninsula, and Lincoln was harassed with cares and anxieties. But he
gave the deputation a cordial though brief greeting, as he announced
that he was ready to hear from the Friends. In the reading of the
minute, it appeared that the document took occasion to remind the
President that, years before, he had said, "I believe that this
Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free," and from
this was implied a suggestion of his failure to perform his duty as he
had then seen it. Lincoln was decidedly displeased with this criticism;
and after the document had been read to the close, he received it from
the speaker, then drawing himself up, he said, with unusual severity of
manner: "It is true that on the 17th of June, 1858, I said, 'I believe
that this Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half
free,' but I said it in connection with other things from which it
should not have been separated in an address discussing moral
obligations; for this is a case in which the repetition of half a truth,
in connection with the remarks just read, produces the effect of a whole
falsehood. What I did say was, 'If we could first know where we are, and
whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do
it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with
the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to the slavery
agitation. Under the operation of that policy this agitation has not
only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not
cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house
divided against itself cannot stand." I believe that this Government
cannot permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do
expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or
all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates
will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the
States, old as well as new, North as well as South.' Take this statement
as a whole, and it does not furnish a text for the homily to which this
audience has listened."
As Lincoln concluded, he was turning away, when another member of the
delegation, a woman, requested permission to detain him with a few
words. Somewhat impatiently he said, "I will hear the Friend." Her
remarks were a plea for the emancipation of the slaves, urging that he
was the appointed minister of the Lord to do the work, and enforcing her
argument by many Scriptural citations. At the close he asked, "Has the
Friend finished?" and receiving an affirmative answer, he said: "I have
neither time nor disposition to enter into discussion with the Friend,
and end this occasion by suggesting for her consideration the question
whether, if it be true that the Lord has appointed me to do the work she
has indicated, it is not probable that He would have communicated
knowledge of the fact to me as well as to her?"
Something like the same views were expressed by Lincoln, on another
occasion, when, in response to a memorial presented by a delegation
representing most of the religious organizations of Chicago, he said,
respectfully but pointedly: "I am approached with the most opposite
opinions and advice, and by religious men who are certain they represent
the Divine Will.... I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say that
if it be probable that God would reveal His will to others, on a point
so closely connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal
it directly to me.... If I can learn His will, I will do it. These,
however, are not the days of miracles, and I suppose I am not to expect
a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case,
and learn what appears to be wise and right.... Do not misunderstand me
because I have mentioned these objections. They indicate the
difficulties which have thus far prevented my action in some such way as
you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation of emancipation,
but hold the matter in advisement. The subject is in my mind by day and
by night. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I will do."
About this period the President had a very interesting conversation with
Rev. William Henry Channing, in which the question of emancipation was
frankly discussed. Mr. M.D. Conway, who was present at the interview,
says: "Mr. Channing having begun by expressing his belief that the
opportunity of the nation to rid itself of slavery had arrived, Mr.
Lincoln asked how he thought they might avail themselves of it. Channing
suggested emancipation, with compensation for the slaves. The President
said he had for years been in favor of that plan. When the President
turned to me, I asked whether we might not look to him as the coming
deliverer of the nation from its one great evil? What would not that man
achieve for mankind who should free America from slavery? He said,
'Perhaps we may be better able to do something in that direction after a
while than we are now.' I said: 'Mr. President, do you believe the
masses of the American people would hail you as their deliverer if, at
the end of this war, the Union should be surviving and slavery still in
it?' 'Yes, if they were to see that slavery was on the down hill.' I
ventured to say: 'Our fathers compromised with slavery because they
thought it on the down hill; hence war to-day.' The President said: 'I
think the country grows in this direction daily, and I am not without
hope that something of the desire of you and your friends may be
accomplished. When the hour comes for dealing with slavery, _I trust I
shall be willing to do my duty, though it costs my life_. And,
gentlemen, lives will be lost.' These last words were said with a smile,
yet with a sad and weary tone. During the conversation Mr. Lincoln
recurred several times to Channing's suggestion of pecuniary
compensation for emancipated slaves, and professed profound sympathy
with the Southerners who, by no fault of their own, had become socially
and commercially bound up with their peculiar institution. Being a
Virginian myself, with many dear relatives and beloved companions of my
youth in the Confederate ranks, I responded warmly to his kindly
sentiments toward the South, albeit feeling more angry than he seemed
to be against the institution preying upon the land like a ghoul. I
forget whether it was on this occasion or on a subsequent one when I was
present that he said, in parting: 'We shall need all the anti-slavery
feeling in the country, and more; you can go home and try to bring the
people to your views; and you may say anything you like about me, if
that will help. Don't spare me!' This was said with some laughter, but
still in earnest."
One of the severest opponents of President Lincoln's policy regarding
slavery was Horace Greeley. He criticized Lincoln freely in the New York
"Tribune," of which he was editor, and said many harsh and bitter things
of the administration. Lincoln took the abuse good-naturedly, saying on
one occasion: "It reminds me of the big fellow whose little wife was
wont to beat him over the head without resistance. When remonstrated
with, the man said, 'Let her alone. It don't hurt me, and it does her a
power of good.'"
In August, 1862, Mr. Greeley published a letter in the New York
"Tribune," headed "The prayer of twenty millions of people," in which he
urged the President, with extreme emphasis, to delay the act of
emancipation no longer. Lincoln answered the vehement entreaty in the
following calm, firm, and explicit words:
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
Friday, Aug. 22, 1862.
HON. HORACE GREELEY.
DEAR SIR: I have just read yours of the 19th instant, addressed to
myself, through the New York Tribune.
If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact, which I
may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If
there be any inferences which I believe to be falsely drawn, I do
not now and here argue against them. If there be perceptible in it
an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it, in deference to an
old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not
meant to leave anyone in doubt. I would save the Union. I would
save it in the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the
national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will
be--the Union as it was. If there be those who would not save the
Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not
agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union
unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree
with them. _My paramount object is to save the Union, and not
either to save or destroy slavery._ If I could save the Union
without freeing any slave, I would do it. And if I could save it by
freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by
freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would do that.
What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I
believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear
because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall
do less whenever I believe what I am doing hurts the cause; and
shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause. I
shall try to correct errors, when shown to be errors; and I shall
adopt new views, so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose, according to my view of official
duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal
wish that all men everywhere could be free.
Yours,
A. Lincoln.
Mr. Greeley being dissatisfied with Lincoln's explanation, and the
"Tribune" still teeming with complaints and criticisms of the
administration, Lincoln requested Mr. Greeley to come to Washington and
make known in person his complaints, to the end that they might be
obviated if possible. The editor of the "Tribune" came. Lincoln said:
"You complain of me. What have I done, or omitted to do, which has
provoked the hostility of the 'Tribune'?" The reply was, "You should
issue a proclamation abolishing slavery." Lincoln answered: "Suppose I
do that. There are now twenty thousand of our muskets on the shoulders
of Kentuckians, who are bravely fighting our battles. Every one of them
will be thrown down or carried over to the rebels." The reply was: "Let
them do it. The cause of the Union will be stronger if Kentucky should
secede with the rest than it is now." Lincoln answered, "Oh, I can't
think that."
It is evident that these solicitations and counsellings from outside
persons were unnecessary and idle. Lincoln's far-seeing and practical
mind had already grasped, more surely than had his would-be advisers,
the ultimate wisdom and justice of the emancipation of the slaves. But
he was resolved to do nothing rashly. He would wait till the time was
ripe, and then abolish slavery on grounds that would be approved
throughout the world: he would destroy slavery as a necessary step to
the preservation of the Union. In the first year of the war he had said
to a Southern Unionist, who warned him against meddling with slavery,
"_You must not expect me to give up this Government without playing my
last card._" This "last card" was undoubtedly the freeing of the slaves;
and when the time came, Lincoln played it unhesitatingly and
triumphantly. How strong a card it was may be judged by a statement made
in Congress by Mr. Ashmore, a Representative from South Carolina, who
said shortly before the war: "The South can sustain more men in the
field than the North can. _Her four millions of slaves alone will enable
her to support an army of half a million._" This view makes the issue
plain. If the South could maintain armies in the field supported, or
partly supported, by slave labor, it was as much the right and the duty
of the Government to destroy that support as to destroy an establishment
for the manufacture of arms or munitions of war for the Southern armies.
The logic of events had demonstrated the necessity and justice of the
measure, and Lincoln now had with him a Cabinet practically united in
its favor. The case was well stated by Secretary Welles--perhaps the
most cool-headed and conservative member of Lincoln's Cabinet--at a
Cabinet meeting held six or eight weeks after the Emancipation measure
had been brought forward by the President. Mr. Welles, as he relates in
his Diary, pointed out "the strong exercise of power" involved in the
proposal, and denied the power of the Executive to take such a step
under ordinary conditions. "But," said Mr. Welles, "the Rebels
themselves had invoked war on the subject of slavery, had appealed to
arms, and must abide the consequences." Mr. Welles admitted that it was
"an extreme exercise of war powers" which he believed justifiable "under
the circumstances, and in view of the condition of the country and the
magnitude of the contest. The slaves were now an element of strength to
the Rebels--were laborers, producers, and army attendants; they were
considered as _property_ by the Rebels, and _if property_ they were
subject to confiscation; if not property, but _persons_ residing in the
insurrectionary region, we should invite them as well as the whites to
unite with us in putting down the Rebellion." This view was in the main
concurred in by the Cabinet members present, and greatly heartened the
President in his course. On the 22d of September, 1862, he issued what
is known as the "Preliminary Proclamation." The text of this momentous
document is as follows:
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 relations 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 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 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 13, 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.
ARTICLE.--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 by 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
17, 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 afterwards
occupied by the 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 the 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.
_By the President_: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
Lincoln's own account of this proclamation, and of the steps that led
to it, is given as reported by Mr. F.B. Carpenter. "It had," said
Lincoln, "got to be midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on from bad to
worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan
of operations we had been pursuing; that we must change our tactics and
play our last card, or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption
of the emancipation policy; and, without consultation with, or the
knowledge of, the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the
proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting
upon the subject. This was the last of July, or the first part of the
month of August, 1862. This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon a
Saturday. All were present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster general,
who was absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in
subsequently. I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step,
and had called them together, not to ask their advice, but to lay the
subject-matter of a proclamation before them; suggestions as to which
would be in order, after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy was in
error when he informed you that it excited no comment, excepting on the
part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions were offered. Secretary
Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the
blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy, on the
ground that it would cost the administration the fall elections.
Nothing, however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated
and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in
substance: 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question
the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the
public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I
fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last
measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help; the government
stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching
forth her hands to the government.' 'His idea,' said the President, 'was
that it would be considered our last _shriek_ on the retreat.' (This was
his precise expression.) 'Now,' continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve
the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue until you can
give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing
it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war!'"
Lincoln continued: "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State
struck me with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in
all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result
was that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, waiting for a
victory. From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up
here and there, anxiously waiting the progress of events. Well, the next
news we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker
than ever. Finally, came the week of the battle of Antietam. I
determined to wait no longer.[F] The news came, I think, on Wednesday,
that the advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers'
Home (three miles out of Washington). Here I finished writing the second
draft of the preliminary proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the
Cabinet together to hear it; and it was published the following Monday."
Another interesting incident occurred at this Cabinet meeting in
connection with Secretary Seward. The President had written the
important part of the proclamation in these words: "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 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_ 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." "When I
finished reading this paragraph," remarked Lincoln, "Mr. Seward stopped
me, and said, 'I think, Mr. President, that you should insert after the
word "_recognize_" "_and maintain_."' I replied that I had already fully
considered the import of that expression in this connection, but I had
not introduced it, because it was not my way to promise what I was not
entirely _sure_ that I could perform, and I was not prepared to say that
I thought we were exactly able to maintain this. But Seward insisted
that we ought to take this ground, and the words finally went in."
The special Cabinet meeting to which Lincoln here refers was one of
uncommon interest even in that day of heroic things. An account of it is
given by Secretary Welles, who was present. "At the Cabinet meeting of
September 22," says Mr. Welles in his Diary, "the special subject was
the Proclamation for emancipating the slaves after a certain date, in
States that shall then be in rebellion. For several weeks the subject
has been suspended, but the President says never lost sight of. In
taking up the Proclamation, the President stated that the question was
finally decided, the act and the consequences were his, but that he
felt it due to us to make us acquainted with the fact and to invite
criticism on the paper which he had prepared. There were, he had found,
not unexpectedly, some differences in the Cabinet, but he had, after
ascertaining in his own way the views of each and all, individually and
collectively, formed his own conclusions and made his own decisions. In
the course of the discussion on this paper, which was long, earnest,
and, on the general principle involved, harmonious, he remarked that he
had made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the victory in the
approaching battle, he would consider it an indication of Divine will,
and that it was his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation.
It might be thought strange, he said, that he had in this way submitted
the disposal of important matters when the way was not clear to his mind
what he should do. God had decided his questions in favor of the slaves.
He was satisfied it was right; and he was confirmed and strengthened in
his action by the vow and the results. His mind was fixed, his decision
made, but he wished his paper announcing his course to be as correct in
terms as it could be made without any change in his determination. He
read the document. One or two unimportant amendments suggested by Seward
were approved. It was then handed to the Secretary of State to publish
to-morrow."
The discussion of Emancipation brought up at once the problem of what
should be done with the freed negroes. The very next day after the
preliminary proclamation was issued (September 23, 1862), the President
presented the matter to the assembled Cabinet. Deportation was
considered, and some of those present urged that this should be
compulsory. The President, however, would not consider this; the
emigration of the negroes, he said, must be voluntary, and without
expense to themselves. It was proposed to deport the freedmen to Costa
Rica, where a large tract of land (known as the Chiriqui Grant) had been
obtained from the government of Central America. Lincoln favored this in
a general way. He "thought it essential to provide an asylum for a race
which we had emancipated but which could never be recognized or admitted
to be our equals," says Mr. Welles. But there was some doubt as to the
validity of the title to the Costa Rica lands, and the matter was
dropped.
In his second annual message to Congress, transmitted to that body in
December, 1862, Lincoln touched, in conclusion, upon the great subject
of Emancipation, in these words of deep import:
I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper
addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief Magistrate of
the nation. Nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor
that many of you have more experience than I in the conduct of
public affairs. Yet I trust that in view of the great
responsibility resting upon me, you will perceive no want of
respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may seem to
display.... The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we
must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think
anew and act anew.
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and
this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another
of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in
honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the
Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to
save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even
we here--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving
freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike
in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed,
this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a
way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God
must forever bless.
An immense concourse attended the reception at the White House on the
first day of 1863, and the President stood for several hours shaking
hands with the endless train of men and women who pressed forward to
greet him. The exhausting ceremonial being ended, the proclamation which
finally and forever abrogated the institution of slavery in the United
States was handed to him for his signature. "Mr. Seward," remarked the
President, "I have been shaking hands all day, and my right hand is
almost paralyzed. If my name ever gets into history, it will be for this
act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the
proclamation, those who examine the document hereafter will say I
hesitated." Then, resting his arm a moment, he turned to the table, took
up the pen, and slowly and firmly wrote, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He smiled as,
handing the paper to Mr. Seward, he said, "That will do." A few hours
after, he remarked: "The signature looks a little tremulous, for my hand
was tired; but my resolution was firm. I told them in September that if
they did not return to their allegiance I would strike at this pillar of
their strength. And now the promise shall be kept, and not one word of
it will I ever recall."
The text of the great Emancipation Proclamation is as follows:
Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by
the President of the United States, containing, among other things,
the following, to-wit:
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 States 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,
Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, 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 first day of January, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
_By the President_: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
It is stated that Lincoln gave the most earnest study to the composition
of the Emancipation Proclamation. He realized, as he afterwards said,
that the proclamation was the central act of his administration and the
great event of the nineteenth century. When the document was completed a
printed copy of it was placed in the hands of each member of the
Cabinet, and criticisms and suggestions were invited. Mr. Chase
remarked: "This paper is of the utmost importance, greater than any
state paper ever made by this Government. A paper of so much importance,
and involving the liberties of so many people, ought, I think, to make
some reference to Deity. I do not observe anything of the kind in it."
Lincoln said: "No, I overlooked it. Some reference to Deity must be
inserted. Mr. Chase, won't you make a draft of what you think ought to
be inserted?" Mr. Chase promised to do so, and at the next meeting
presented the following: "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." When Lincoln read the paragraph, Mr. Chase said: "You may
not approve it, but I thought this, or something like it, would be
appropriate." Lincoln replied: "I do approve it; it cannot be bettered,
and I will adopt it in the very words you have written."
To a large concourse of people who, two days after the proclamation was
issued, assembled before the White House, with music, the President
said: "What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under a
heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have
made no mistake." That he realized to the full the gravity of the step
before taking it is shown again in an incident related by Hon. John
Covode, who, calling on the President a few days before the issue of the
final proclamation, found him walking his room in considerable
agitation. Reference being made to the forthcoming proclamation, Lincoln
said with great earnestness: "I have studied that matter well; my mind
is made up--it _must be done_. I am driven to it. There is to me no
other way out of our troubles. But although my duty is plain, it is in
some respects painful, and I trust the people will understand that I act
not in anger but in expectation of a greater good."
Mr. Ben. Perley Poore makes the interesting statement that "Mr. Lincoln
carefully put away the pen which he had used in signing the document,
for Mr. Sumner, who had promised it to his friend, George Livermore, of
Cambridge, the author of an interesting work on slavery. It was a steel
pen with a wooden handle, the end of which had been gnawed by Mr.
Lincoln--a habit that he had when composing anything that required
thought."
In response to a request of the ladies in charge of the Northwestern
Fair for the Sanitary Commission, which was held in Chicago in the
autumn of 1863, Lincoln conveyed to them the original draft of the
proclamation; saying, in his note of presentation, "I had some desire to
retain the paper; but if it shall contribute to the relief or comfort of
the soldiers, that will be better." The document was purchased at the
Fair by Mr. Thomas B. Bryan, and given by him to the Chicago Historical
Society. It perished in the great fire of October, 1871.
More than a year after the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation,
Lincoln, in writing to a prominent Kentucky Unionist, gave a synopsis of
his views and course regarding slavery, which is so clear in statement,
and so forceful and convincing in logic, that a place must be given it
in this chapter.
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is
wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel; and yet
I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an
unrestricted, right to act officially upon this judgment and
feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the
United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath.
Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and
break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in
ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral
question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times and in
many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official
act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on
slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the
Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of
preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government--that
Nation of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it
possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By
general law, life _and_ limb must be protected; yet often a limb
must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given
to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional,
might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation
of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right
or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel
that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the
Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should
permit the wreck of government, country, and constitution,
altogether. When, early in the war, General Frémont attempted
military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think
it an indispensable necessity. When a little later, General
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks,
I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable
necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military
emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the
indispensable necessity had come. When, in March and May and July,
1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to
favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable
necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would
come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the
proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the
alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the
Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I
chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than
loss; but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of
trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our
home popular sentiment, none in our white military force, no loss
by it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite
a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These
are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no
cavilling. We have the men; and as we could not have had them
without the measure.
And now let any Union man who complains of the measure, test
himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the
rebellion by force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking
three hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and
placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns.
If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he cannot
face the truth.
I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have
controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled
me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's
condition is not what either party or any man devised or expected.
God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God
now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of
the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our
complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new
causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN