HIS FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS,

he said: "Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a republican administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.' Those who have nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them.'

I

I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming administration.

"I take the official oath today with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. .

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' " 14

In a still more striking and impressive manner did Mr. Lincoln in that Inaugural Address state his conservative views and purposes respecting slavery by approving of the following Constitutional amendment: "No amendment shall be made to 14 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., pp. 169-185.

the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any State with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." 15

This amendment was prepared and introduced by Hon. Thomas Corwin of Ohio, chairman of the committee of thirtythree, and had passed both houses of Congress by substantial majorities and was signed by President Buchanan. Referring to that constitutional amendment, which at the time required only the approval of three-fourths of the states to become a part of the national Constitution, Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural address said: "Holding such a provision to now be amply Constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.”

Had that amendment become a part of the national Constitution it would have made it forever impossible to abolish slavery by peaceable and constitutional methods. Yet, it was approved by President Lincoln and by his administration, through Secretary Seward it was sent out to the several states for their approval, and had it been accepted by the South it would undoubtedly have received the approval of the requisite three-fourths of the states and become a part of the fundamental law of the land. From that dire calamity the nation was saved by the mad assault upon Fort Sumter and the cruel Civil War.

15 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. X., p. 90.

T

VI

EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED

HE civilized world has come to recognize Abraham
Lincoln as the divinely chosen agent for the destruc-

tion of slavery. This he accomplished by the authority and power of the Presidential office. But when he assumed the duties of that exalted station he was bound by an imperious sense of duty and by solemn promises not to interfere with that institution in the states where it then existed. That Mr. Lincoln intended faithfully and fully to keep his promises respecting slavery is beyond question. That he hoped to save the nation without interfering with slavery is also certain. That he earnestly and perseveringly endeavored to accomplish both of these results is now a matter of history. In so doing it became necessary for him to interpose his great authority and power as President to protect slavery from the assaults of his subordinates.

For a time this did not become necessary. In his call for a special session of Congress to meet on the Fourth of July, 1861, and in his message to that body, he made no reference to slavery and no action of Congress during that session was at variance with his declared purposes respecting that institution. Both branches of Congress were dominated by a spirit of exalted patriotism, all the acts of the President in the emergency brought on by the rebellion were approved and made legal, and even in excess of his requests provisions for the vigorous prosecution of the war were enthusiastically made. As the location and movements of the Union army were chiefly in the states were slavery existed, it was impossible to ignore that institution, but everything proceeded as fully as possible in harmony with the President's well-known policy. This continued without interruption for nearly five

months, when on the 30th of August, 1861, General John C. Fremont, in command of the department of Missouri, startled the nation, and attracted the attention of the world by issuing a proclamation in which he declared martial law and emancipation in all the state of Missouri. To make effective this proclamation, General Fremont convened a military commission to hear evidence and proceeded to issue deeds of manumission to persons held in slavery under the laws of the state. This proclamation produced a profound impression in all the loyal states.

General Fremont was held in very high esteem by the rank and file of the republican party throughout the nation. His early achievements in exploring a route for a transcontinental railroad and his gallant bearing as the republican candidate for President in 1856, caused him to be greatly admired by those who were proud to march under his banner during that memorable Presidential campaign. His appointment as a Major-General at the beginning of the war and his assignment to an important military command were hailed with a delight which burst into a flame of enthusiasm when his emancipation proclamation was published. But his action in this matter met the prompt and emphatic disapproval of the conservative element among the supporters of the Government and awakened serious apprehensions respecting its influence in the border states where loyalty to the Union seemed to depend upon the National Government maintaining its attitude of non-interference with slavery.

Having been of the number of enthusiastic young republicans who marched in the Fremont processions in 1856, and being an ardent abolitionist and therefore not fully satisfied with President Lincoln's policy respecting slavery, I hailed the Fremont proclamation with delight as the beginning of the end of slavery. And I am now making this historical record of the events connected with that proclamation by General Fremont as one who at the time was ardently attached to him and fully in sympathy with that movement against slavery.

General Fremont's great popularity and the intensity of antislavery sentiment in the loyal states combined to make it very difficult for President Lincoln to bring the General's action in this matter into conformity with law and with the policy he was pursuing toward slavery without causing serious division among Union people. Conditions at the time in General Fremont's department were far from harmonious and some who had been and were opposed to his course in other matters were not backward in claiming that the proclamation was intended for political rather than military results.

The controversy in General Fremont's department became very bitter and, although at first local, it grew to national dimensions and importance, by drawing into its contentions several prominent and distinguished men, including the Blairs, one of whom was a member of President Lincoln's Cabinet. This added to the difficulties and dangers encountered by the President in dealing with General Fremont's interference with slavery. But never did he seem to have been influenced in the least by the danger of incurring popular displeasure in disapproving of General Fremont's course, which he promptly did with that rare wisdom and tact that always characterized his treatment of peculiarly delicate and complicated questions.

On the 2nd of September, 1862, he sent to General Fremont by special messenger a carefully written letter, fragrant with the spirit of considerate kindness and gentle firmness. Respecting the portion of the proclamation that ordered the shooting of disloyal people found with arms in their hands, President Lincoln said: "Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in retaliation; and so man for man indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation without first having my approbation or consent."

With admirable frankness and candor Mr. Lincoln in that letter to General Fremont expressed his conviction that the 1 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., p. 418.