points of attack upon Mr. Lincoln was his antislavery antecedents. He endeavored to cast reproach upon him for his opposition to slavery.

4. See what has been accomplished under his Administration. First, slavery abolished in the District of Columbia; second, slavery prohibited for ever in the Territories; third, the Proclamation of Emancipation; fourth, negroes employed as soldiers; fifth, the recognition of Hayti and Liberia; sixth, the African slave-trade restrained as never before. He who is not satisfied with this progress must find frequent occasion to murmur at Divine Providence.

When William Lloyd Garrison, than whom a more radical abolitionist does not live, is satisfied with the President's policy on this score, surely they who have never asked to be considered so thoroughly antislavery ought to be content with thèse results. Mr. Garrison says, in supporting Mr. Lincoln's Administration, "I think every thing looks auspicious for our country. It seems to me that the omens are all good, and that we are making progress in the right direction every day, and every hour of the day. I believe, that, under this Administration, we have advanced a quarter of a century in a single year; and therefore the President, however slow in comparison with our wishes or aspirations, instead of being an 'ox-team,' has beaten even the 'Birmingham train.' . My friends, if every thing has not been done that we could desire, or that justice demands, let us see how much has been done. Is it not far beyond all that we could have rationally expected? The work of a quarter of a century done up in a single year should make us hopeful and patient, and encourage us to believe that all minor inequalities will be looked after in due season."

Hon. Mr. Arnold, member of the United-States House of Representatives, from Illinois, the intimate acquaintance of Mr. Lincoln for twenty years, has so well presented this point in a speech before the House, that we quote the closing paragraphs:

"However others have doubted and hesitated, Mr. Lincoln's faith in the success of our cause has never been shaken. He has been radical in all that concerns slavery, and conservative in all that relates to liberty.

"His course upon the slavery question has shown his love of freedom, his sagacity, and his wisdom. From the beginning, he has believed that the Rebellion would dig the grave of slavery. He has allowed the suicide of slavery to be consummated by the slaveholders themselves. Many have blamed him for going too fast in his antislavery measures: more, I think, have blamed him for going too slow, of which I have been one. History will perhaps give him credit for acting with great and wise discretion. The calm, intelligent, philosophic abolitionists of the Old World, uninfluenced by the passions which surround and color our judgments, send, across the ocean, congratulation and admiration on the success and wisdom of his course. The three leading features of his Administration on the subject of slavery are,

"1. His Proclamation of Emancipation.

"2. The employment of negroes as soldiers.

"3. The Amnesty Proclamation, which makes Liberty the corner-stone of reconstruction.

"The Emancipation Proclamation will live in history as one of those great events which measure the advance of the world. The historian will rank it alongside with the acquisition of Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence. This great State paper was issued after the most careful and anxious reflection, and concludes with these solemn words:

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution and military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.'

"The considerate judgment of mankind on both sides of the

ocean has already approved it; and God has seemed to favor it with a series of victories to our arms never witnessed before its issue, -a series of victories for which we are more indebted to the President than to any other man."

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"But," says one of this class, who can scarcely wait for God to bring the children of Israel out of bondage, “the President modified Frémont's proclamation." True; and why? Simply to make it conform to the Act of Congress of Aug. 6, 1861; and surely this ought to have been the case. When the President saw the proclamation, he wrote to Gen. Frémont, pointing out its nonconformity to the Act of Congress, and suggesting that Frémont himself should change it to conform thereto. But Gen. Frémont preferred that the President should do it; and so Mr. Lincoln wrote another communication, dated Sept. 11, 1861, from which we extract the following: "On seeing your proclamation of Aug. 30, I perceive no general objection to it: the particular clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves, appeared to me to be objectionable in its nonconformity to the Act of Congress, passed the 6th of last August, upon the same subjects."

"But there was Gen. Hunter's proclamation," says the objector: "the President revoked it." True; and why? Simply because no one has a right to issue such a proclamation but the President, and that, too, as a military necessity. But Gen. Hunter did not issue his proclamation "from any alleged military necessity growing out of the operations in his department, but from a theoretical incompatibility between slavery and martial law." Two good reasons, then, why the President should interfere! In his proclamation revoking Gen. Hunter's order, the

President expressly states that the right to free the slaves belongs to himself, and intimates that he may do it when "it shall have become a necessity, indispensable to the maintenance of the Government;" and, in view of what he shall be obliged to do (proclaim liberty to the captives), he entreats (in the same proclamation) the citizens of the slave States to adopt his previous measure of the gradual abolition of slavery, saying, "To the people of these States, now, I mostly appeal. I do not argue: I beseech you to make the arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. . . . So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time, as, in the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it!"

How earnest and serious is the President in this matter! "If you do not abolish slavery, I shall," is the amount of the above appeal to the slaveholding States. The two documents that interfered with Frémont's and Hunter's proclamations prove that Mr. Lincoln was not only in favor of liberating the slaves, but was expecting the time would come when he must do it as a military necessity. Now that he has done it, why make so much bluster because he did not do it sooner? Rather, with Mr. Garrison, be thankful that it is done at all, and adore Divine Providence for putting it into the heart of the President to manage the difficult question in such a manner as to unite the masses of the people, and thereby avert the terrible disaster ..that would have resulted to our cause from dividing the loyal country into factions by more hasty and violent

measures.

Even Wendell Phillips has recognized the duty of the

President to adhere to the Constitution, so far as possible, in dealing with slavery; and the following extracts from his speeches are a complete indorsement of the views we have presented. At the Music Hall, in April, 1861, he said,

"Abraham Lincoln knows nothing, has a right to know nothing, but the Constitution of the United States. The South is all wrong, and the Administration is all right."

At Framingham, July 4, 1861, he said,

"What do I ask of the Government? I do not ask it to announce a policy of emancipation now: it is not strong enough to do it. We can announce it; the people can discuss it: THE ADMINISTRATION IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO ANNOUNCE IT. I do not care whether it means it or not. IT WERE UTTER RUIN TO ANNOUNCE IT NOW. . . An honest Administration, an honest President, stands hesitating, distrusting the strength of the popular feeling behind him. . . Abraham Lincoln, Salmon P. Chase, Montgomery Blair, have not the heart nor the wish to thrust back into the hell of Virginia slavery one single contraband article in Fortress Monroe. They never will do it. . . . My policy, therefore, is, give the Administration generous sympathy. Give it all the confidence for honesty of purpose you can. They mean now only the Union; but they are willing we should make them mean any thing more we please. Abraham Lincoln means to do his constitutional duty in the crisis. I have faith in his honesty."

Mark, that this radical abolitionist expressly declared in the above, that the President was in advance of public opinion on the question of liberty; and this has always been the fact. The violent and extensive opposition to all his radical measures against slavery is proof of this. One year later, he said,

"I find great encouragement everywhere. I find it in the disposition of the President. I believe he means what he said to the Border-State senators and representatives, when, at the announce