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said, 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 selfdefense, 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 witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[L. S.]

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 of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

This measure, now no surprise, could encounter no new opposition. Public opinion, despite occasional insinuations of doubt, had already adapted itself to the great fact. It was well understood in all the armies; Southern vituperation had made it known to all classes in the slaveholding States; the nations abroad were fully apprised that the fate of slavery was irrevocably involved in the final issue of the war. In all Europe Lincoln's name at once had new renown and the Union

cause a new grandeur. The moral effect was immediately manifest. A great assemblage in Exeter Hall, in London, hailed with enthusiasm the new phase of the contest. There was sympathetic rejoicing among a large share of the industrial people of Great Britain, who seriously suffered from the effects of the war.

Replying (January 19th, 1863) to an address from the workingmen of Manchester (England), Lincoln said: "When I came, on the 4th of March, 1861, through a free and constitutional election, to preside in the government of the United States, the country was found at the verge of civil war. Whatever might have been the cause, or whosesoever the fault, one duty, paramount to all others, was before me, namely, to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution and the integrity of the Federal Republic. A conscientious purpose to perform this duty is the key to all the measures of administration which have been, and to all which will hereafter be pursued. . . I know, and deeply deplore, the sufferings which the workingmen of Manchester, and in all Europe, are called on to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively upon the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the workingmen of Europe have been subjected to severe trial, for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under these circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country."

CHAPTER XIV.

1863.

Burnside Succeeded by Hooker - West Virginia, Arizona and Montana-Conscription-Payment for Slaves Freed in the District of Columbia-Missouri MalcontentsThe Vallandigham Case.

General Burnside was eager to retrieve his misfortune at Fredericksburg. Before the close of December he had matters in train for a cavalry raid around his enemy's left to break his communications, and for a feigned flanking movement in force on that side, with a real one in the opposite quarter. Whispers from some of Burnside's subordinates in responsible positions and public criticisms on his generalship in the late undertaking led the President to direct, on the 30th, that the new one be suspended. The General visited Washington at once, and gaining little satisfaction as to the sources or details of the opposition he suspected, returned to Falmouth still in command, though proposing to resign. The President wrote him on the 8th of January: "I deplore the want of concurrence with you in opinion by your general officers, but I do not see the remedy. Be cautious, and do not understand that the Government or the country is driving you. I do not see how I could profit by changing the command

of the Army of the Potomac, and if I did, I should not wish to do it by accepting the resignation of your commission."

Finding that the details of the proposed cavalry raid were known to Confederate sympathizers in Washington, Burnside changed his plan. Menacing below Fredericksburg, where his real attack was first intended, he now purposed to cross in force at Banks's and the United States fords above. The movement from Falmouth was begun on the evening of January 20th. At 10 o'clock that night a severe storm set in,- snow, sleet, heavy rain,- transforming the roads, hitherto excellent, into weltering mud, through which the tramping soldiers, horses, artillery, and wagon trains for hours dragged tediously on, until further advance became practically impossible. Instead of the quick night march intended, the weary column at break of day was still on the left bank of the river and visible to hostile eyes. The army countermarched, with such energy as remained, to its old camping-ground at Falmouth. Thus ended what was irreverently called, in the army, Burnside's "mud campaign."

The General, without further hopes of immediate action, now occupied himself with inquiring into and, if possible, remedying the insubordinate disposition he thought to be manifested in his command. Presently he determined to dismiss Major-General Hooker, and Brigadier-Generals Brooks and Newton, and to relieve Major-Generals Franklin and W. F. Smith, and some other officers, from their respective commands in his army. An order to this effect was submitted to the President, with the alternative of its acceptance or

Burnside's own resignation from the army. Lincoln accepted neither, but gave the chief command to Hooker, who, on the 26th of January, superseded his accuser. Later, Burnside was pacified by the command of a department in the West.

On the day before his proclamation of Emancipation the President approved the act admitting the State of West Virginia. He had taken the written opinions of the Attorney-General and of the other members of his Cabinet on the constitutionality and expediency of the measure. Judge Bates argued both questions at length, with negative conclusions as to each. Secretary Chase wrote briefly, maintaining the affirmative as to both points. There was also a lack of unanimity on the part of his other official advisers. Acts organizing the Territories of Arizona and Montana were respectively approved on the 24th of February and the 3d of March; and on the latter date- midway of the Presidential term-acts providing for the issuance of letters of marque and reprisal (a power never exercised by the President) and for enrolling and calling into the Federal service those who were made liable for military duty, known as the Conscription Act.

As commissioners to adjust all claims for compensation under the act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, the President appointed Daniel R. Goodloe, a native of North Carolina, and a resident of Washington; Samuel F. Vinton, ex-Congressman from Ohio, who died soon after the commission began its work, and was succeeded by ex-Comptroller John M. Brod

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