None of the committee signed the President's duplicates, nor were willing to make any pledges for themselves, treating the matter as an insult, and making a long and very personal and acrimonious rejoinder, showing that so far as they were concerned, the discussion had not only not been productive of good, but it served to increase the bitterness of the opposition, the Democratic party, as an organization, becoming more and more anti-war as the end approached. The leaders were unable or unwilling to distinguish between a time of war and a time of peace; and whether they were willingly rebellious and false, or blindly sincere, did not matter in practice. That they were one or the other time and events proved, and, perhaps, few of those who participated in this falsest and maddest of all follies among wise men would care to discuss the matter to-day. The elections soon came on, and exhibited a great revulsion in public sentiment. The Republican or party was quite generally successful, reversing all the unfavorable indications of the spring elections, war and those of the previous fall. General McClellan wrote a letter indorsing George W. Woodward for Governor of Pennsylvania against Andrew G. Curtin, the war Governor. of the Woodward was one of the judges the Supreme Court of the State who had declared enrollment act and draft "unconstitutional," but General McClellan said: "Having some days ago, had that a full conversation with Judge Woodward, I find our views agree; and I regard his election as Governor of Pennsylvania called for by the interests of the Nation." But Curtin was re-elected by over fiteen thousand majority. And in Ohio John Brough defeated C. L. Vallandigham by over one hundred thousand votes. In 1862 New York had gone for Seymour by ten thousand, and now the reaction in that State gave the war party a majority of thirty thousand. So in Massachusetts and other Eastern States the majorities were large, as they were also throughout the West. The draft riots had had their effect; the earnest, cutting letters of the President had their effect; Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Port Hudson had had their effect; and the words and deeds of the malcontent "Opposition" leaders had all conspired to swell the Republican successes in the fall of 1863. This election was a verdict in support of the policy of the Administration, Emancipation Proclamation, and all, and of the continuance of the war until the Rebellion was overthrown. It also pointed unmistakably to the utter defeat of the Democracy in the Presidential contest of 1864. CHAPTER X. 1862-WAR OF THE REBELLION-THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMANCIPATION-THE EMANCIPATION PROCLA N ence TION-MR. LINCOLN AND HIS DEED. former chapters of these volumes the early course of Mr. Lincoln's Administration in referto slavery has been given with sufficient fullness, perhaps; and an effort has been made throughout to omit nothing which would seem necessary to convey an accurate idea of Mr. Lincoln's personal views and feelings, when entering upon the Presidency, on this most important subject as related to the crisis then reached in the Nation's history. That he had no design of interfering with slavery in the States where it existed, there can be no doubt. He only hoped during his term of office to see it confined within the bounds it then occupied, and the original idea of its ultimate extinction in the Union established as the sentiment of the country. This was, indeed, the extent of the ambition of the Republican leaders. It was all they really desired or hoped to accomplish. That there would be a long and bloody war, which should make general and immediate emancipation a national necessity, he never believed, did not even think or dream it. And when he entered upon his office, he and his Cabinet, and the party leaders generally, made extraordinary ef forts to exhibit to the slaveholding and already rebellious quarter, their disposition to keep their hands off the "institution." And long after the war had begun the Administration seemed determined to let slavery severely alone, the officers in the army taking courses in dealing with it either in keeping with their own sentiments, or with their views of theprobable desires and intentions of the Administration. The Emancipation Proclamation, and whatever else Mr. Lincoln did for the destruction of slavery, came out of the supposed necessities of the times, and were the results of a gradual development of public affairs. During the special session of Congress in the summer of 1861, there was displayed an evident timidity on the part of the Republican leaders in approaching the subject of slavery, and only the more bold of the old Abolitionists, like Owen Lovejoy, ventured to touch the dangerous theme at all. But by the first of December, when Congress began to assemble in regular session, public sentiment and necessity had prepared the way for action. Having begun the work, Congress moved gradually forward until the great national enemy was dead. Probably Mr. Lincoln had never had the opportunity to do anything which gave him so much gratification as the approving of the acts abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia and prohibiting slavery in all the Territories of the Nation; and certainly since the signing of the Declaration of Inde pendence and the adoption of the Constitution and formation of the Federal Government, no American had had the opportunity to do so great an act. Still he kept pace with Congress with much anxiety as to the effect of his course. Never having been actuated by the sentiments and motives of mere Abolitionism, he was now mainly influenced at every step by the single thought of defeating the rebels and saving the Union. This he made the test of all his acts. He had no ambition to go down in history as the Great Liberator. Events made him do what he did, and yet what he was thus enabled to become to his country and to four millions of the colored race, gave more satisfaction than it did any other man in America. him General David Hunter issued the following orders at Fort Pulaski and Hilton Head: All persons of color lately held to involuntary service by enemies of the United States, in Fort Pulaski, and. Cockspur Island, Georgia, are hereby confiscated and decla red free, in conformity with law, and shall hereafter receive the fruits of their own labor. on Such of said persons of color as are able-bodied, and may be required, shall be rate mployed in the Quartermaster's Department, at the heretofore established by Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman." "HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, "[GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 11.] << The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Car olina, comprising the Military Department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under |