to the laws of war, the Government of the United States had a clear right to treat the Rebels as public enemies, and the act of emancipation exercised by the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, weakening the power of those public enemies, was strictly in accordance with the laws and usages of civilized nations. In due course of time, however, Congress so exercised its civil power, by the entire abolition of slavery in the Republic, that any possible doubt as to the efficacy of the President's act disappeared.

It should be said that the members of the President's Cabinet not only cordially approved of the issuing of the proclamation, but they filled their proper functions as advisers of the President in this matter. Lincoln had prepared his proclamation earlier in the year. He was ready to issue it in July. When the subject was laid before the Cabinet for final approval, Secretary Seward strongly urged that its promulgation be postponed for a while. At that time the Rebel army under General Lee was marching northward to invade Pennsylvania. The military fortunes of the Republic were at a low ebb. There was great depression of spirit everywhere. Mr. Seward argued that the issuing of the emancipation at that critical juncture would be generally regarded as a cry for help; or, as Lincoln put it, when reporting the fact afterwards, "our last shriek on the retreat." It was then that Lincoln agreed to put off the day of proclamation, and subsequently made the vow to God to issue the portentous and solemn document if Lee should be driven back. It

was at Mr. Seward's suggestion, too, that the word "maintain" was inserted, so that the clause thus amended read: "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforth 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." Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, penned the concluding paragraph, which, being approved by the President, was added, as follows: "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." The words "upon military necessity," however, were inserted by Lincoln before the paragraph was adopted by him as a part of this immortal document.

The people of foreign countries, especially of England, poured across the Atlantic their congratulations that slavery was at last abolished in the Republic of the United States. Lincoln had been assured by many of the more advanced Republicans who were nearest him, that the British Government would cordially respond to this declaration of universal freedom. In this he was disappointed. Lord John Russell, who, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was the official mouthpiece of the British Government in matters outside of the kingdom, in a despatch to the British Minister at Washington, mildly sneered at the proclamation as "a measure of

a very questionable kind,” “an act of vengeance on the slaveowner." With evident ill-nature and disposition to cavil, his lordship said: "It professes to emancipate slaves where the United States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality, but emancipates no one where the decree can be carried into effect." His lordship lived to see the decree carried into effect in every part of the American Republic.

But in spite of the unconcealed hostility of governments that bore only ill-will to the Republic, in spite of the moral assistance given by these to the slaveholders' rebellion, the fiat had gone forth throughout all the land that slavery should be no more. For a brief season the hated system clung to the earth on which it had fattened. Thenceforward its struggles were fainter and more faint. The son of the soil, he who embodied in himself the genius of America and its highest manhood, had set his hand to the decree of universal freedom.

The preliminary proclamation of September 22, 1862, and the final proclamation, dated January 1, 1863, are as follows:

"I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States and each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed.

"That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical

measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the people where of may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the Governments existing there, will be continued.

"That, on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 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 State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not in rebellion against the United States.

"That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress

entitled 'An act to make an additional article of war,' approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figures following:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war, for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:

"ARTICLE. All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from service.

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, that this act shall take effect from and after its passage.'

"Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled 'An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes,' approved July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following:

"SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall