Abraham Lincoln

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... military necessity. His duty was to preserve the Union at all costs; and he now warned his hearers that whatever measures "may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle must and will come," unless that struggle be soon ended. He felt the injustice of a sudden confiscation of property, even though the ownership of that property was based upon false principles; especially perhaps where, as in the Border States, its owners remained faithful to the cause of the Union in spite of the menaces and inducements held out to them by the Confederacy. If the war continued, it would not only be the slaves of rebels who would be emancipated. Once initiated, he knew that the work must be completed, that the Abolitionist party now rapidly increasing in strength owing to the spirit and incidents of civil war, would never rest till every slave was free, and freed by Federal action. The burden of such emancipation would fall heavily on hundreds of thousands in the Border and Southern States, who while they were involved in slavery, remained loyal. He wanted to help them in the only way possible to him: and he wanted the nation to help them. Congress passed the desired resolution, and Lincoln laboured with the representatives of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and the loyal portion of Virginia, vainly endeavouring to obtain from them a whole-hearted support for his policy. They regarded it with a stubborn suspicion and even with hostility; and these feelings were fully shared, though for other reasons, by many free-state representatives, and by the Abolitionists as a party. On either side it was R regarded as granting too great a concession to the other. But whatever their opposition as politicians, it...