PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.

Independence of the United States of America the eighty seventh.

This Proclamation, considered in all its relations, was one of the most important public documents ever issued by the hand of man. And as time passes on, adding century to century of human history, it will be regarded with more and more reverence, as a consummation of the labors of the Fathers of the Republic, who declared the great truth, that "all men are created equal." With that belief, the writer has inserted, for the gratification of the present generation and of posterity, the form of the proclamation as it came from the hand of the President, and of the pen with which it was written.

Unlike the preliminary proclamation, it was wonderfully potential. The loyal portion of the nation was ready for the great act, and hailed it with

1 This is a picture of the pen with which President Lincoln wrote the original draft of his Proclamation, a fac-simile of which is given on this and the three pages preceding. The pen was given to Senator Sumner by the President, at the request of the former, and by him presented to the late George Livermore, of Boston, from whom the writer received a photograph and a pencil drawing of it. It is a steel pen, known as the "Washington," with a common cedar handle—all as plain and unostentatious as the President himself.

The original draft of the Proclamation is on four pages of foolscap paper, from which a perfect fac-simile was made for the author of this work by the Government photographer, a few days after it was written, by permission of the President, and under the direction of his Private Secretary, John G. Nicolay. In speaking of it to the author the President said: "I wish to make an explanation of the cause of the last formal paragraphs being in another's hand-writing, and the appearance of a tremulousness of hand when I signed the paper. It was on New Year's day. Before I had quite completed the proclamation, the people began to eali upon me to present the compliments of the season. For two or three hours I shook hands with them, and when I went back to the desk, I could hardly hold a pen in the hand that had been so employed. So I used the hand of my private secretary in writing the closing paragraphs, having nothing more to add to the proclamation. I then signed it, with a tremulous hand, as you will perceive, made so, not from the agitation caused by the set, but from the reception of my visitors."

The fac-simile here given was made a little smaller than the original, to adapt it to the size of the page, but is perfect in every part. The original was presented by the President to the managers of a Sanitary Fair in Chicago, for the benefit of the soldiers, who sold it to T. B. Bryan, Esq., of that city, for the sum of $3,000.

FIRST REGIMENT OF COLORED TROOPS.

565

joy, while the disloyal portion, and especially the conspirators, were struck with dismay, for it was a blow fatal to their hopes. It dissipated the charming vision of a magnificent empire within the Golden Circle,' founded on human slavery, which the conspirators had presented to the imaginations of their cruelly deceived dupes. It touched with mighty power a chord of sympathy among the aspirants for genuine freedom in the old world; and from the hour when that proclamation was promulgated, the prayers of true men in all civilized lands went to the throne of God in supplication for the success of the armies of the Republic against its enemies. And from the moment when the head of the nation proclaimed that act of justice, the power of the rebellion began to wane. Already freedmen by thousands had

entered the public service, and large numbers were enrolled soldiers in the army of the Republic; and the first utterance of tidings by the mouth of man to freedmen of the Proclamation of Emancipation, was made to a regiment of them in arms beneath the shadows of a magnificent live-oak grove near Beaufort, in South Carolina, within bugle-sound of the place where many of the earlier treasonable movements in that State were planned. In Beaufort district, the stronghold of slavery, the first regiment of colored troops, under the provisions of the act of Congress, was organized, and it was to these that a public servant of the Republic announced the glad tidings.

2

1 See page 187, volume I.

2 When the writer visited the village of Beaufort, in South Carolina, early in April, 1866, he spent an evening with Dr. Brisbane, the Government Tax-Collector of the District. He was born in South Carolina, but had been

566

THE CONFEDERATE "CONGRESS."

While a large portion of the time of Congress, during the session of 1861-'62, was consumed in the consideration of military measures, and especially the subjects of slavery, confiscation, and emancipation, the finan cial affairs of the country, and public interests of every kind, were attended to with great assiduity. The financial measures and their operations and results will be considered hereafter. Let us now turn for a moment, and see what the Conspirators were doing at Richmond while their armies were in the field.

The Confederate " Congress," so called, reassembled in Richmond on the 18th of November, 1861, and continued in session, with closed doors most of the time, until the 18th of February, 1862, when its term as a "Provisional Congress," made up of men chosen by conventions of politicians and legislatures of States, expired. On the same day a Congress, profes

driven from the State more than twenty years before, because he emancipated his slaves. He was residing in Wisconsin when the rebellion began. When Beaufort came into the permanent possession of the National

forces, he was appointed tax-collector of the district from which he had been driven. In that district the first regiment of colored troops for the National army was organized. They were stationed on Smith's plantation (see map on page 126), about a mile and a half from Beaufort, near the ruins of the old Spanish fort Carolina, which gave the name to the State; and there, in a magnificent oak-grove near the water, Dr. Brisbane addressed them and a large concourse of people, white and colored, on the 1st of January, 1863. There he who had been driven from that, his native soil, because he emanci pated a little more than thirty slaves, announced that on that day the President of the United States had proclaimed freedom for over three millions of slaves! What changes time and circumstances bring! When the writer had visited and sketched that grove, and strolled over the remains of the Spanish fort, and through the desolation of the once beautiful garden in front of the Smith mansion, hedged in by pal mettos, his attention was called to a huge oak, on the gentle bank of Beaufort River, with double stems, between which were seats. On one of them, overlooking the harbor of Beanfort and Lady's Island, a Massachusetts Doctor of Divinity sat and wrote, a few years before, a large portion of a book devoted to a Defense of Negro Slavery!

Dr. Brisbane was living in the fine old mansion of Edmond Rhett, one of the most violent of the South Carolina secessionists, in which it is said the treasonable "Southern Association" held its meetings (see note 1, page 91, volume I.), and where the form of the South Carolina

Ordinance of Secession, afterward offered by Inglis in the Convention, was discussed. Beaufort was the summer resort of the aristocracy, so called, of South Carolina, and in its churchyards lie the remains of many distinguished persons. In that of the Episcopal church, and not far from the new-made grave of General Elliott, the writer saw and sketched a white marble monument in the form of a palmetto-stem, on the recumbent slab at the foot of which was the following suggestive inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Hugh Toland, son of Melvin and Eliza Sams. Born December 31st, 1846. Died July 29th, 1860. A youthful son of South Carolina, he sought to serve her, even while preparing for her better future service, and entered the State Military Academy in his seventeenth year. Carrying with him the impress of his childhood's training, he exhibited to his Alma Mater a respectful devotion akin to that which animated him as a son. liis courteous bearing, hightoned sentiments, and exemplary conduct for nearly four years secured for him the high esteem of his professors and affectionate regards of his fellow-cadets. All grieve for their loss. This tribute is paid by his commanding officer. What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' John xiii. 17."

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HIS COUNCIL.

567

sedly elected by the people,' commenced its session under the "Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States." In this assembly all of the slavelabor States were represented excepting Maryland and Delaware. The oath to support the Constitution of the Confederate States was administered to the "Senators" by R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, and to the "Representatives" by Howell Cobb, of Georgia. Thomas Bocock, of Virginia, was elected "Speaker." On the following day the votes for "President" of the Confederacy were counted, and were found to be one hundred and nine in number, all of which were cast for Jefferson Davis. Three days

a Feb. 22, 1862.

afterward he was inaugurated President for six years. He chose for his "Cabinet " Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, as "Secretary of State;" George W. Randolph, of Virginia, "Secretary of War;"

S. R. Mallory, of Florida, "Secre

tary of the Navy;" C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina, "Secretary of the Treasury ;" and Thomas H. Watts, of Alabama, "AttorneyGeneral." Randolph resigned in the autumn of 1862, when James A. Seddon, a wealthy citizen of Richmond, who figured conspicuously in the Peace Convention at Washington, was chosen to fill his place.

The Confederate "Congress" passed strong resolutions in favor of prosecuting the war more vigoously than ever, and declared, by joint resolution, that it was the

unalterable determination of the people of the Confederate States "to suffer all the calamities of the most protracted war," and that they would never, "on any terms, politically affiliate with a people who were guilty of an invasion of their soil and the butchery of their citizens." With this spirit they did prosecute the war on land, and by the aid of some of the British aristocracy, merchants, and shipbuilders they kept afloat piratical craft on the ocean, that for a time drove most of the carrying trade between the United States and Europe to British vessels.

We have already noticed the commissioning of so-called "privateers " by the Confederate "Government,' "5 and some of their piratical operations

1 In most instances these elections were as much the voice of the people as was that held in Virginia, in accordance with the following proposition of a leading paper in Richmond in the interest of the conspirators: -"It being necessary to form a ticket of electors, and the time being too short to call a Convention of the people, it was suggested that the Richmond editors should prepare a ticket, thus relieving the people of the trouble of making selections. The ticket thus formed has been presented. Among the names we find those of Wm. L. Goggin, of Bedford, and R. T. Daniel, of Richmond; E. H. Fitzhugh, of Ohio County; John R. Edmunds, of Halifax, and C. W. Newton, of Norfolk City. Every district in the State is embraced in this editorial report."

2 For a list of the members of the "Provisional Congress" see page 463.

3 The votes were as follows:-Alabama, 11; Arkansas, 6; Florida, 4; Georgia, 12; Louisiana, 8; Mississippi 9; North Carolina, 12; South Carolina, 8; Tennessee, 13; Texas, 8; Virginia, 18.

4 See chapter X., volume I.

5 See page 372, volume I.

568

CONFEDERATE PIRATE SHIPS.

in the spring and summer of 1861. Before the close of July, more than twenty of those depredators were afloat, and had captured millions of property belonging to American citizens. The most formidable and notorious of the sea-going ships of this character, were the Nashville, Captain R. B. -Pegram, a Virginian, who had abandoned his flag, and the Sumter, Captain Raphael Semmes. The former was a side-wheel steamer, carried a crew of eighty men, and was armed with two long 12-pounder rifled cannon. Her career was short, but quite successful. She was finally destroyed by the

a Feb. 28, 1862.

Montauk, Captain Worden," in the Ogeechee River. The career of the Sumter, which had been a New Orleans and Havana packet steamer, named Marquis de Habana, was also short, but much more active and destructive. She had a crew of sixty-five men and

with great favor, and was afforded every facility for her piratical operations. She became the terror of the American merchant service, and everywhere eluded National vessels of war sent out in pursuit of her. At length she crossed the ocean, and at the close of 1861 was compelled to seek shelter under British guns at Gibraltar, where she was watched by the Tuscarora. Early in the year 1862 she was sold, and thus ended her piratical career.

Encouraged by the practical friendship of the British evinced for these corsairs, and the substantial aid they were receiving from British subjects in various ways, especially through blockade-runners, the conspirators determined to procure from those friends some powerful piratical craft, and made arrangements for the purchase and construction of vessels for that purpose. Mr. Laird, a ship-builder at Liverpool and member of the British Parliament, was the largest contractor in the business, and, in defiance of every obstacle, succeeded in getting pirate ships to sea.

The first of these ships that went to sea was the Oreto, ostensibly built for a house in Palermo, Sicily. Mr. Adams, the American minister in London, was so well satisfied from information received that she was designed for the Confederates, that he called the attention of the British Government to the matter so early as the 18th of February, 1862. But nothing effective was done, and she was completed and allowed to depart from British waters. She went first to Nassau, and on the 4th of September suddenly appeared

827.

1 See pages 555 to 558, inclusive, volume I.

2 The appearance of the remains of the Nashville in the Ogeechee River is seen in the tail-piece on page