was making out of it, than to ignorance of the law, or hostility to England. Nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln had a hurricane to withstand. He was for a few days uncertain as to the law in the case: but there came to him a letter from an old friend in the far west, in whose legal knowledge he had complete faith -Hon. Thomas Ewing-which said simply-In this affair of the Trent we are in the wrong. And before any comment on the event had returned from England, the President had arrived at his decision, and was only considering how the surrender could be made with as little risk of a Democratic (proslavery) reaction as possible. These facts I have from one who was in intimate relation with the President during that affair."

CHAPTER XI.

THE EMANCIPATION ACT.

The public mind is gradually prepared for Emancipation.-The Presi dent's Message favoring gradual Emancipation.-The Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.-General Hunter's Emancipation Order, and its revocation by the President.-Conference with the Border States Senators.-Orders from the President, through the War Department, relative to Slavery.-Letter from the Secretary of War to General Butler.-Confiscation Bill.-Greeley's Letter to the President. --The President's Reply.-His reply to a Memorial from the Clergymen of Chicago.-Letters of Charles Sumner and Owen Lovejoy.--THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.-Suspension of the Habeas Corpus.Proclamation of Freedom, January 1st, 1863.-Mr. Carpenter's “ Inside History" of the Emancipation Proclamation.-Reminiscences by the Rev. M. D. Conway.

THE Thirty-seventh Congress, convening for its second session, December 2d, 1861, received from the President his annual message, in which the condition of the country, and the progress of the war were clearly stated; and the principles which had guided the Executive in his conduct of public affairs, were set forth with great distinctness and precision.

It was very evident from this document, as well as from his official actions, that, as regarded the subject of interference with slavery, the President, while adhering strictly to the provisions of the act passed by Congress at its extra session, was gradually becoming convinced of the inevitable necessity of adopting a much more rigorous policy-as a means of quelling the rebellionthan had been contemplated by that act.

It is true, as stated in a previous chapter, that when Major-General Fremont, in September, 1861, proclaimed universal emancipation in his military department of Missouri-the act, though applauded by the whole country, and regarded by almost every statesman and lawyer as a legitimate exercise of martial power-was disapproved by the President. But this was because he did not consider it an indispensable military necessity, and consequently held it as a violation of his oath to support the Constitution to permit it. In this, as in all other cases, where a point of moral conviction was involved, he was immovable; and, profoundly mistaken in his interpretation of the Constitution as many believed him to be, yet his quiet firmness on the occasion commanded respect even from those who differed radically with him in regard to its propriety.

There was, also, equally evident, a corresponding advance of the public mind in the same direction. The diplomatic assurance of our Secretary of State to foreign governments, that no change in southern institutions was contemplated, in any event; McClellan's manifesto on the subject to the Virginians; Halleck's exclusion of fugitive slaves from the lines of the Army of the West, and the 22d of July resolution of Mr. Crittenden, were no longer satisfactory. During the past few months, aside from the small class of those who had been, from the first, radical emancipationists,-a large portion of the people had been gradually led to the conviction that some measure which should free the slave from the condition in which he was made to support the rebel cause, and which also should allow of his active employment against that cause-would be a proper and a

desirable exercise of the war-power. The resistance of the rebels had been much more vigorous than any one, at the outset of the war, had calculated upon; the defeat at Bull Run had exasperated and aroused the public mind; while the military results thus far, had not been satisfactory, either to the President or to the people. The leniency of the government in regard to slavery had entirely failed in its first great object, the lessening and softening of the animosity of the rebels; and had even been represented by the latter, to European powers, as evidencing the intention of the United States to protect and perpetuate slavery, by restoring the authority of the Constitution which guaranteed its safety. It was, also, a well ascertained fact, that slaves were freely employed, within the rebel lines, in building fortifications, etc., thus, as well as in other ways, contributing largely to the strength of the rebellion. The whole country, then, began to understand that slavery was not only the cause, but the main strength of the rebellion; and their demand for its destruction-as a means of shortening the war-became daily more and more earnestly manifested.

The President, in his inaugural address, had foreseen this coming necessity, and consequently had avoided any pledge or act, which under such circumstances, should restrict his power to hasten its destruction. He considered himself in this-as in all other matters-the instrument for the faithful execution of the declared will of the people. At the time of his inauguration, only seven of the States forming the Confederacy had been fairly swept into the maelstrom of secession, and of the remaining eight slave States, only four were finally absorbed. As

the President, therefore, of an, as yet, undivided Union, Mr. Lincoln felt constrained to a course of non-interference with the relation of master and slave. In his opinion, the power vested in him did not authorize the disturbance of that relation as a recognized institution, but simply as a military measure, by commanders in the field, and for purely military purposes, in accordance with the established laws of war. Foreseeing what must come, if resistance to the authority of the United States was long persisted in, he had most earnestly endeavored to arouse the attention of the southern people, to the fact that the fate of slavery would, sooner or later, inevitably be involved in the conflict. And knowing this, this cautious and patient leader sought, with wise forethought, to reconcile the shock which would thus be involved, with the order and the permanent prosperity of the country and the people.

It was soon apparent, as the session of Congress progressed, that that great deliberative body was also disposed to make very considerable advances upon the legislation of the extra session, and to them the President, on the 6th of March, sent the following message on the subject of aiding such slaveholding States as as might take measures to emancipate their slaves, and recommending the adoption of measures looking to "gradual, and not sudden emancipation."

"WASHINGTON, March 6, 1862. "FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:—I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable body, which shall be, substantially, as follows:

Resolved, That the United States, in order to coöperate with