PRELIMINARIES OF EMANCIPATION.

Among these the first in practical importance, perhaps, will be regarded President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation. On the 22d of September, 1862, President Lincoln issued a proclamation in which, after reciting the provisions of certain acts of Congress, he declared that on the first of the following January he would, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, set free all slaves in all parts of the country remaining in rebellion against the government. This proclamation created a profound impression throughout the country. Many asserted it was proof that the war was carried on, not for the restoration of the Union, but for the abolition of Slavery. This, however, the proclamation itself disproved. It is to be observed also, that on the 6th of March previous, the President had sent a message to Congress, recommending compensated emancipation, in accordance with which both Houses very soon passed the following joint resolution :

Resolved, etc., That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system."

Other legislative attempts in the same direction were also made, and there was much diplomacy on the subject between representatives of the border Slave States and President Lincoln; but all such efforts failed to reach a practical result. A recurrence to them, however, is regarded proper, as

showing that emancipation, through the war power of the government, was not adopted except as the last extremity and on account of the dire necessity of the military situation. Accordingly, after many months of wearying patience the President issued that immortal document, the "Proclamation of Emancipation," wherein, after citing the preliminary proclamation already referred to, he proclaimed:

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:

[Here follows an enumeration of the Slave States, with certain reservations in favor of districts occupied by Federal troops.]

"And by virtue of the power and for the purpose 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, 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 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, the first day of January, in the [L. S.] year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President :

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

LINCOLN TO THE CHICAGO CLERGYMEN.

It belongs, perhaps, rather to a biography of Abraham Lincoln than the province of history, to say that he gave to this subject his profoundest reflection, considering it not only in its legal and military bearings, but as affected by Christian civilization also. Only a few days before the warning proclamation of September 22d, the President gave audience at the Executive Mansion, to a deputation from all the religious denominations of the city of Chicago, who waited upon him to urge the propriety and necessity of emancipation. In the course of his reply to their remarks, Mr. Lincoln said:

"Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned these objections. They indicate the difficulties that have thus far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is on my mind by day and night more than any other Whatever shall appear to be God's will I will do."

It would thus appear that no great measure ever received more deliberate, earnest consideration than that sublime document by which the chains of three million slaves were at once destroyed. Congress and the people approved the measure

with much unanimity. An amendment to the Constitution, forever abolishing slavery-introduced by Representative James F. Wilson, of Iowa-was speedily adopted by Congress, and soon ratified by the requisite number of State Legislatures. Thus was freedom established throughout the land much sooner than, without the rebellion, it could possibly have been done.

THE AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

It will be in logical order to speak here of two other great triumphs of the Republican party in behalf of human rights, though they were not gained for some years after the amendment by which slavery was abolished. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, the joint resolution for which passed Congress in 1866, declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, whose rights as such must be protected alike in all the States. By the same amendment the validity of the public debt is forever assured, and payment of the Rebel debt prohibited. By the Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in 1869, the right of franchise is secured to colored men in all parts of the Union. It is hardly too much to say that in the success of these amendments to the Constitution, following emancipation by military authority, as they did, the Republican party did more in behalf of genuine liberty and more against political and civil injustice than was ever before accomplished in a much longer period, by any party or by any nation.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1864.

But it was not alone by great success in the management of the civil Government, and by the practical adoption in legislation of liberal and progressive ideas, that the Republican party was able to maintain its ascendancy. The conduct of the war had for some time been such as to merit the approbation of the country. The Army of the Potomac, under General Meade, had gained the great victory of Gettysburgh. With the Western armies under Grant and Sherman, victory had been the rule. With them there had been no such word as fail. By the time the presidential campaign of 1864 began, a large portion of "Confederate" territory had been regained; the Mississippi river was open to the Gulf; the backbone of the rebellion had been broken by the remarkable battle of Chattanooga; Sherman was marching on toward his rapid conquest of Georgia; Grant was thundering through the Wilderness on that notable campaign which finally resulted in the capitulation of all the rebel armies, and the glorious triumph of the Union arms.

Thus the military situation gave every promise of speedy success, when the third Republican National Convention assembled at Baltimore, June 7, 1864. Over this convention temporarily presided the Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, the distinguished divine of Kentucky. Governor Dennison, of Ohio, was permanent President. Abraham Lincoln was re-nominated candidate for President, receiving all