Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

it is believed that a year later he would have signed the bill without the joint resolution explanatory thereof.

While Congress had been discussing the great questions of emancipation and confiscation, the President had been most carefully considering the same subjects.

The following resolution and action of the popular branch of the National Legislature, as well as the debates in both Houses of Congress, exhibit the rapid progress of public sentiment on the subject of slavery. On the 2d of December, 1861, Mr. Elliott offered a resolution:

"Resolved, 1. That in behalf of the people of these States, we do again solemnly declare that the war in which we are engaged against the insurgent bodies now in arms against the Government, has for its object the suppression of such rebellion, and the reëstablishment of the rightful authority of the National Constitution and laws over the entire extent of our common country. 2. That while we disclaim all power under the Constitution to interfere by ordinary legislation with the institutions of the several States, yet the war now existing must be conducted according to the usages and rights of military service, and that during its continuance, the recognized authority of the maxim that the safety of the State is the highest law, subordinates rights of property, and dominates over civil relations. 3. That, therefore, we

do hereby declare that, in our judgment, the President of the United States, as the commander-in-chief of our army, and the officers in command under him, have the right to emancipate all persons held as slaves in any military district in a state of insurrection against the National Government, and that we respectfully advise that such order of emancipation be issued wherever the same will avail to weaken the power of the rebels in arms, or to strengthen the military power of the loyal forces."

Which resolution, after being amended so as to insert. after the word "slaves," the words "held by rebels," was, on the 17th, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The varied and excited discussions, bills, and numerous resolutions on the subject of emancipation, have been already alluded to. It was obvious that as the war was being waged by the insurgent States to maintain slavery, and secure for it security, if slavery could be destroyed, and emancipation

accomplished, the object and end of the war would be defeated, and the war itself cease. Besides, so long as slavery was unassailed, it was à source of strength to the rebels, but with emancipation and freedom, the black population would flock to the National standard, and render it efficient aid.

It is very interesting to trace the gradual advance of opinion on the part of President Lincoln, which finally resulted in the settled conviction of the absolute necessity of emancipation. He entered upon the Presidency, a thorough, radical, anti-slavery man. He believed in the irreconcilable antagonism between free and slave labor. But with these convictions, no man had a higher reverence for law; and he was by nature cautious, and a conservative reformer. He did not understand that the Presidency conferred upon him an unrestricted right to act upon his anti-slavery feelings. No man ever entered upon the Presidency with a more firm determination that his administration should be strictly constitutional. He deprecated violent or sudden changes. Inspired by these views, on the 6th day of March, 1862, he sent the following message to Congress, recommending compensated and gradual emancipation. Said he:

"I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

"Resolved, 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."

"If, said he, the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance, that the States and people immediately interested, should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States north of such part will then say, 'the Union for which we have

struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.' To deprive them of this hope, substantially ends the rebellion; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it, as to all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that, while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern, that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed Confederacy. I say 'initiation,' because, in my judgment, gradual, and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables and treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself, how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition, on the part of the General Government, sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case, to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them.

"In the annual message last December, I thought fit to say 'the Union must be preserved; and hence all indispensable means must be employed.' I said this, not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical re-acknowledgment of the National authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great fficiency towards ending the struggle, must, and will come.

"The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope it may be esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States, and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs?

"While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not, within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope, that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God, and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

Mr. Lincoln was agitating the alternative of immediate and unconditional emancipation, by his own proclamation, or gradual and compensated emancipation as proposed in the foregoing message. He determined to submit the subject to Congress and the border slave States, with the sincere hope, that the latter would be accepted.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.

EMANCIPATION DEMANDED BY THE LOYAL STATES-LETTER OF MR. GREELEY-LINCOLN'S REPLY-INTERVIEW WITH CHICACO CLERGY

APPEAL OF THE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM-MR. LINCOLN READS THE PROCLAMATION TO HIS CABINET-ISSUED ON THE 22D SEPTEMBER-AFTER THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM-INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH IT-HOW RECEIVED.

IT

T is clear, from several paragraphs in the President's message, and it is known from other sources, that the slavery question occupied Mr. Lincoln's most anxious thoughts, and that he was considering the subject of emancipation under military authority, and as a military necessity. He alludes to a paragraph in his annual message which declared "that the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed. I said this not hastily but deliberately. If resistance continues, the war must continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come."

In these somewhat ambiguous paragraphs we now know that he alluded to the great proclamation of emancipation. It is clear that he considered this great question primarily, as it affected the success of the struggle in which the Nation was engaged to suppress the rebellion. If it was a proper and apt measure to effect that end, he might rightfully adopt it, not otherwise, however much he might desire universal freedom. He himself says, "when, in March, May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed

« AnteriorContinuar »