UNITED STATES. 



7ht) 



of " gradualism." Their views of the position 

 of aftairs were thus emphatically expres-od: 



The President, as well as Congress, in consequence 

 of this slaveholding rebellion, and the dire extremity 

 to which it has brought the nation, has now the con- 

 stitutional right, power, and opportunity to " proclaim 

 liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants 

 thereof;" and neither the President nor Congress 

 must be allowed to evade this solemn duty by any 

 dodge of this kind. " Now is the accepted time ; 

 and now let it be "the day of salvation.'' Multitudes 

 of petitions from all the free States, signed by tens of 

 thousands of estimable citizens, are before Congress, 

 asking for the immediate abolition of slavery under 

 the war power; and are these to be satisfied by pro- 

 posing such a will-o'-the wisp as a substitute '? Why 

 wait for the dealers in .human flesh to determine when 

 they will deem it advisable to cease from their villainy 

 as a matter of pecuniary advantage and cunning spec- 

 ulation with the Governmjnt, when the Government 

 is clothed with the constitutional power to dispose of 

 the whole matter at once, without any huckstering or 

 delay? "Let justice be done, though the heavens 

 fall." President Lincoln, delay not at your peril ! 

 "Execute judgment in the morning break every 

 yoke let the oppressed go free." 



In a word, the proclamation was regarded 

 by them as a "dodge" which must not be al- 

 lowed to succeed. 



The views of the President respecting the 

 importance of emancipation with compensa- 

 tion are stated more fully and earnestly in a 

 proclamation issued on the 19th of May, coun- 

 termanding an emancipation order of General 

 Hunter. (See PCBLIO DOCU.ME.VTS.) He said : 



"The resolution was adopted by large majorities in 

 both branches of Congress, and now stands an au- 

 thentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to 

 the States and people most interested in the subject 

 matter. To the people of these States now I mostly 

 appeal. I do not argue I beseech you to make the 

 arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, 

 be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a 

 calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if 

 it may be, far above partisan and personal politics. 



" This proposal makes common cause for a common 

 object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not 

 the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come 

 gently as the dews of Heaven, not rending or wrecking 

 anything. Will you not embrace it ? So much good 

 has not been done by one effort 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." 



The measure had frequently been suggested 

 by public men before, but not in an official 

 form. 



On the 16th of April the President approv- 

 ed of the bill for the emancipation of the 

 slaves in the District of Columbia, with com- 

 pensation to the owners. At the same time he 

 sent a message to Congress stating the fact, 

 and adding : 



" I have never doubted the constitutional authority 

 of Congress to abolish slavery in the District, and "I 

 have ever desired to see the national capital freed from 

 the institution in some satisfactory way. Hence there 

 has never been, in my mind, any question upon the 

 subject, except those of expediency, arising in view 

 of all the circumstances. If there "be matters within 

 and about this act which might have taken the course 

 or shape more satisfactory to my judgment, I do not 

 attempt to specify them. I am gratified that the two 

 principles of compensation and colonization are both 

 recognized and practically applied in the act." 



On the 9th of May Gen. Hunter, in the de- 

 partment of South Carolina, i- 

 stating that the S- 



Georgia, and Florida were declared, on the 

 25th of April preceding, to bo under martial 

 law. He then added : " Slavery and martial 

 law in a free country are altogether inn. 

 ible. The persons in th. 

 held as slaves are, therefore, declared l'. . 

 free." The President immediately afterward 

 issued his proclamation, as above stated, 

 vowing, on the part of the Government, any 

 previous knowledge of this proceeding, and 

 denying the authority of any general to take 

 such a step, also stating that it was a question 

 reserved to himself for decision. 



This measure of Gen. Hunter served as a 

 new occasion to call forth the sentiments of 

 the people relative to the policy of the ( 

 ernment. In the course which it had thus far 

 pursued, especially in countermanding this act, 

 it was regarded as proceeding in the manner 

 prescribed by the Constitution and the law. 

 The act itself was almost universally regretted 

 or condemned. It was apprehended that it 

 would tend to alienate the sympathies of 

 Unionists residing in these States, and in 

 the other slaveholding States, and that it 

 would be used by the Confederates to add 

 fresh fuel to the flames by which the hearts of 

 the Southern people had been fired, and to ex- 

 tinguish which more blood must necessarily 

 flow. By some it was condemned on the great 

 principle that each State had exclusive juris- 

 diction of the subject, as it had of all its inter- 

 nal or domestic affairs; some opposed it be- 

 cause of its manifest injustice in punishing, 

 without discrimination, those who were Union- 

 ists as well as those who were disunionists ; 

 others were against it because of its direct and 

 violent antagonism to the often declared policy 

 of the Administration, viz., so to conduct the 

 war as not to render the reconstruction of the 

 Union impossible. 



Emancipation with compensation still con- 

 tinued to be the favorite measure of the Presi- 

 dent, and, in pursuance of that object, he 

 specially invited the Representatives and Sen- 

 ators from the border slaveholding States to 

 meet him in conference on the 12th of July. 

 On that occasion he urged, as motives for the 

 States which they represented to resolve upon 

 such a measure, that it would divest the Con- 

 federate States of all hope that they would 

 ultimately join the Confederacy; the incidents 

 of the war might extinguish the institution in 

 their States without compensation ; such a 

 step would also shorten the war and save the 

 money otherwise expended. He said : " How 

 much" better for you, as seller, and the nation, 

 as buyer, to sell out and buy out that without 

 which the war could never have been, than to 

 sink both the thing to be sold and the price of 

 it in cutting one another's thr Mr. Lin- 



coln then appealed to them with personal 

 considerations, representing himself under a 



