CHAPTER XLV.

EXECUTION.

Efforts for Compensation to Owners of Slaves-Dreams of ColonizationThe Future of the African in America-The Final Proclamation-The Slave-Owner a Southern Sympathizer.

WHEN Congress assembled in December, 1862, the issuing of the final Proclamation of Emancipation on the approaching New-Year's Day was an already assured result.

Its future effect, so far as the nominally seceded States were concerned, would depend much upon the success of current military operations. The people, however, of the border slaveStates, occupied in part or in whole by Union armies, were rapidly becoming aware that the "peculiar institution," among themselves, had received its death-blow. All discontent was deepened and all loyal sentiment was weakened in the minds of the slave-owners of Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and all in other States that sympathized with them and respected the Constitutional legality of their human property. By no fault of their own they were losing that which had come to them in strict accordance with the laws of their States and country, and these they were still obeying. They had vested rights which even the hand of revolution and reformation was bound to respect as far as possible. It was true that the proclamation did not include them in its sweeping blow, but there now remained no effective or operative power to keep in bondage any slave, anywhere, who should make an effort for freedom. It was a sense of justice, therefore, quite as much as policy, which led Mr. Lincoln to

urge upon Congress the adoption of a system of compensated emancipation for these areas and for the reimbursement of loyal owners of the prices of slaves set free by the operations of the war. Even at the North such legislation was regarded, very generally, as both wise and just. But the measures proposed were permitted to die.

From an early day, as a follower of Henry Clay, Mr. Lincoln had vaguely entertained the ideas of that statesman with reference to the colonization of the colored population. So long as the mass of it seemed to be doomed to perpetual servitude, the yearly shipment of a few hundreds, or even many thousands, to any other part of the world was little more than a philanthropic experiment, with but moderate possibilities of good or evil. Now, however, in the very act and hour of giving wholesale freedom to millions of the marked race, the problem of their future well-being pressed with increasing force upon the heart and brain of the man who set them free. It was yet a question in his mind whether they could safely be intrusted with the powers and responsibilities of citizenship. He openly stated, even to delegations of black men standing before him in the Executive Mansion, his belief that the black and white races, living in contact, were a mutual detriment to each other. It would not be easy to disprove the correctness of such an opinion from the records of the African in America up to the year 1863, and it could even be fairly well defended from the annals of after-years. In his perplexity, at the time, Mr. Lincoln turned to his old dream of colonization. Fantastic as it was, he clung to it for a while, and until the better conviction forced itself upon him that the Africans had come to America to stay and must be made men of, here and now.

His message to Congress, at this session, did little more than set forth the difficulties he had already discovered in the way of his idea. It is not impossible that he learned something from writing and reading his own statement that the black man refused to go to Liberia or to Hayti, and that there seemed

to be no other patch of the earth's surface upon which he could be securely landed.

Less than two years later, still in the same spirit of thoughtful care for the welfare of the freed black men, he was ready to say, and said, to a personal friend whom he had appointed to an important civil post in one of the seceded States which was first to be reconstructed: "I am glad you are so strongly in favor of giving the colored men the ballot. Do all you can to have it done now. I urge you to push the matter. Once the war is over, the ballot will soon be about all the protection they will have. We must fix it so they can protect themselves. They must have it now, and then it can't be taken away from them."

That was in September, 1864; but he could not have said as much in the winter of 1862-3, even if the belief and purpose had then existed in his mind and will. Emancipation itself, by the act of a "military despotism," was about as heavy a burden as the political fortunes of the Administration were just then able to carry.

It was staggering a little under its accumulated load, for this included the entire military and diplomatic situation; the battles in Virginia; the bad look of the recent fall elections; the necessity of increasing taxes; the reorganization of the national finances; and the imperative need for more men to be expended as soldiers.

On the first of January, 1863, according to his covenant in September, the President issued the final Proclamation of Emancipation, as follows:

"Whereas, on the twenty-second 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 in 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. Marci, 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 Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

"And, by virtue of the power and for the purposes 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, 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 sixtythree, and of the independence of the United States the eightyseventh.

"By the President:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."