in all past time, as in the providence of God it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it."11

Early in the war Mr. Lincoln in a private conversation with Robert J. Walker and James R. Gilmore intimated that he was considering a proposition to offer financial compensation to slave states that would co-operate with the General Government in accomplishing the gradual abolishment of slavery. He then expressed the conviction that the North and South were jointly and equally responsible for the existence of slavery in the nation, and that any financial loss from its abolishment should be borne by the General Government. To this conviction he steadfastly adhered, even after Congress had submitted to the states the Constitutional Amendment abolishing and forever prohibiting slavery in the nation; but that compensation for financial loss through emancipation was for states co-operating with the Government in abolishing slavery, and in conversation with Governor Walker he said: "If we must fight out this war to a victory there should be no compensation."

And when dealing with the Hunter proclamation Mr. Lincoln realized that slavery was doomed and that only by the plan suggested in his gradual emancipation message of March 6th could any state permitting slavery escape from disastrous financial loss. Hence, his impassioned appeal to the slave states to accept the compensated abolishment proposition which he quoted in the proclamation annulling General Hunter's order. Hence, also, his conference on the 12th of July, 1862, with members of Congress from the Border States and his strong appeal to them not to neglect the opportunity afforded them to aid in the early termination of the war and to save their states from the disastrous financial loss by commending to their constituents the compensation proposition of the General Government.

At the time of that conference with the representatives 11 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., pp. 172-173.

of the Border States, President Lincoln had not only decided to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, but the original copy of that great document had been prepared by him and was probably lying in his private drawer within his reach as he was reading to those gentlemen his fervent plea for their assistance in making his compensation abolishment plan successful.

This fact explains the peculiar character of his appeal on the 12th of July to those members of Congress from the Border States. His marshaling of facts, cogency of argument, solemn warnings and impassioned appeal resemble the tearful messages of Jeremiah, when in prophetic vision he saw the calamities into which his people were stubbornly advancing. To have pointed those men to the sword of judgment against slavery which even then was lifted up and was ready to fall, would have been to employ a threat to accomplish what he still hoped to achieve by persuasion. In the Hodges letter, from which I have already quoted, referring to his efforts with the Border State men, President Lincoln said: "When in March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element."12

On the 7th of April, 1864, three days after the Hodges letter was written, in a conversation with Mr. George Thompson, Mr. Lincoln, referring to the time of which I am writing, said: "The moment came when I felt that slavery must die that the nation might live."

That interview with the Border State men on the 12th of July, 1862, was the last of Mr. Lincoln's efforts to avoid or postpone the issuing of a proclamation of freedom.

12 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 67.

If

those gentlemen upon that occasion had encouraged the President to hope that they would aid in making his compensation scheme successful it is quite certain that he would have withheld his proclamation until they could have done so; but by declining his invitation they left him without an alternative, and the next day in a conversation with Seward and Welles he declared his purpose to issue an Emancipation Proclamation.

T

VII

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

HE Emancipation Proclamation was the product of a severe, struggle between the radical and conservative elements of the nation. That struggle continued with constantly increasing vigor during the first year and a half of Mr. Lincoln's Presidency, and ceased when that Proclamation was issued on the 22nd of September, 1862. After that date the conservative element with decreased and decreasing severity opposed the Emancipation policy of the administration, but the victory of the radicals was practically won when the preliminary proclamation was issued.

President Lincoln became the unwilling captive of the radical element, and with very great and painful reluctance accomplished by the Emancipation Proclamation what he diligently sought to avoid. He ardently desired the abolishment of slavery by state action and not by edict of the General Government. After the preliminary Proclamation was issued he stated to Hon. Edwin Stanley, Military Governor of North Carolina, "that he had prayed to the Almighty to save him from this necessity, adopting the very language of our Saviour, 'If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' but the prayer had not been answered." 1

To the representatives from the Border States, on July 12th, 1862, the President said: "I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned-one which threatens division among those who, united, are none too strong." In this President Lincoln referred to the Proclamation of Emancipation which had been issued by General Hunter, and said: "In repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if not offense, to many whose support the 1 Thorndyke Rice, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, p. 533.

country cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The pressure in this direction is still upon me and is increasing.

2

The next day after that conference, in his conversation with Secretaries Seward and Welles, according to the testimony of the latter, Mr. Lincoln declared that Emancipation "was forced upon him as a necessity," "was thrust at him from various quarters," and "had been driven home to him by the conference of the preceding day.”

The conference to which President Lincoln here refers was the one with the Border State men, and it was their rejection of his proposition for compensated emancipation that had "driven home to him" the necessity of an Emancipation Proclamation. He realized that a crisis had been reached and that what he designated as "Military Emancipation" had become an indispensable necessity. The struggle by which that decision was evolved began when he became President. The Fremont Emancipation movement was an eruption from the volcano of antislavery sentiment among the loyal masses and the contest which that movement precipitated added to the influences arrayed in hostility to slavery. On the 15th of November, 1861, eight months after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, Hon. George Bancroft addressed a letter to the President in which he said:

"Your administration has fallen upon times which will be remembered as long as human events find a record. I sincerely wish to you the glory of perfect success. Civil war is the instrument of Divine Providence to root out social slavery. Posterity will not be satisfied with the result unless the consequences of the war shall effect an increase of free States. This is the universal expectation and hope of men of all parties."

In reply to Mr. Bancroft's letter the President wrote: "The main thought in the closing paragraph of your letter is one which does not escape my attention, and with which I 2 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., pp. 272-273.