as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.'

"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:

"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New

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Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

"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 selfdefence; 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 witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

Creation and Equipment of an Army-The Federal Military Plan-Retirement of General Scott-General McClellan in Full Command -Appearance of General U. S. Grant-Fall of Forts Henry and Donelson -Criticism of McClellan-Death of the President's Son Willie-Miliitary Operations on the Peninsula-McClellan's Extraordinary Delays -His Advice to the President-Halleck Made General-in-Chief-A Conference of Loyal Governors-The Second Bull Run Defeat-Antietam McClellan Relieved of His Command.

WHIL

HILE the steps that led up to the issuing of of the emancipation proclamation were being taken, Lincoln was greatly troubled by the difficulties and dangers of the military situation. The eyes of the people, for the most part, were turned toward Washington, where was the focus of all intelligence relating to the conduct of the war as well as to political affairs. The operations around the national capital were, for various reasons, more interesting than were those of greater real importance in other parts of the country. In that direction, it seemed, nothing was done but to make elaborate and extensive preparations. General McClellan was now in the zenith of his fame and popularity. He was yet young, barely turned of thirty-six, but he had

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already made himself a favorite with the army and the people. From the first, Lincoln was profoundly anxious to find generals who could command popular confidence and also win battles. This was not an easy task. The larger number of the men who appeared to be available were not skilled in military tactics and strategy; they had had very little experience in real war. Of the veterans of the war with Mexico, General Scott and General Wool were now well advanced in years. The abilities of the younger graduates of the Military Academy at West Point had not yet been developed. Affairs were in a confused and chaotic condition.

Many men fresh from civil life were commissioned as major and brigadier generals. Some of these proved good soldiers, and many of them proved incompetent. The losses entailed by the preliminary trials and schooling of these civilian generals were doubtless very great. When McClellan, fresh from victorious fields, assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, in the summer of 1861, he found a fine body of men, fifty thousand in number, waiting for his organizing hand. Fresh levies of troops were pouring in, and before the year closed, his command was roughly estimated to contain about two hundred thousand men. As early as October 27, 1861, General McClellan's official reports to the Secretary of War showed that he had 147,695 men ready for duty; and the arriving levies almost immediately available would increase this number to 168,318. It must be said that the nucleus of this great army was gathered by

Lincoln, who, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, had strained his authority to the utmost to collect a force for the defence of the capital and to serve as a framework on which should be organized a large and aggressive fighting army.

His general plan, adopted after much anxious consultation with his most trusted advisers, was as follows: To blockade the entire coast-line of the rebel States; to acquire military occupation of the border States so as to protect Union men and repel invasion; to clear the Mississippi River of rebel obstructions, thus dividing the rebel confederacy and relieving the West, which was deprived of its natural outlet to the sea; to destroy the rebel army between Washington and Richmond and capture the rebel capital. This vast plan had been formed in the mind of Lincoln by the very necessities of the situation. It was considered and brooded over while preparations for its execution were being made, and while the great questions of the emancipation of the slaves and the confiscation of rebel property were also under consideration. If we remember that at this time, also, the foreign relations of the government were strained, and that the financial resources were severely taxed, we shall have some notion of the prodigious cares that weighed down the man who, far into the morning watch, walked the lonely corridors of the White House, thinking, thinking, while others slept.

Early in November, General Scott, who held the highest command in the army of the United States, having been