CHAPTER XVII.

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.

TH

HE 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:

66 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 Presi dent 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 not 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. the President replied:

But

"I admit that Slavery is at the root of the Rebellion, or at least its sine quá 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.""

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: