Chapter XIII: Freedom to Millions

Tribune Editorial--Letter to Mr. Greeley--Announcement of the
Emancipation Proclamation--Suspension of the _Habeas Corpus_
in certain cases--Order for Observance of the Sabbath--The
Emancipation Proclamation.

An editorial article having appeared in the _New York Tribune_, in the month of August, 1862, in the form of a letter addressed to the President, severely criticising his action relative to the question of slavery--a letter written in ignorance of the fact that a definite policy had already been matured, which would be announced at a suitable moment--Mr. Lincoln responded as follows:

“_Executive Mansion_, Washington, Aug. 22, 1862.

HON. HORACE GREELEY--_Dear Sir_: I have just read yours of the
19th, addressed to myself through the _New York Tribune_. If there
be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to
be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If there be in
it any inference which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not
now and here argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an
impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old
friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

“As to the policy I ‘seem to be pursuing,’ as you say, I have not
meant to leave any one in doubt.

“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the
Constitution. The sooner the National authority can be restored,
the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be
those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same
time _save_ Slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those
who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time
_destroy_ Slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object
in this struggle _is_ to save the Union, and is _not_ either to
save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing
_any_ slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing _all_
the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and
leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about Slavery
and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this
Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do _not_ believe it
would help to save the Union. I shall do _less_ whenever I shall
believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do _more_
whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall
try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt
new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have
here stated my purpose according to my view of _official_ duty, and
I intend no modification of my oft-expressed _personal_ wish that
all men, every where, could be free.

“Yours, A. LINCOLN.”

What that policy was, every manly heart learned with delight when the following Proclamation appeared, the most important state-paper ever penned by any American President:

“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 the people
thereof, in those States in which 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 the Slave States, so-called, the people whereof may not
then be in rebellion against the United States, and which States
may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily
adopt, the immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within
their respective limits, and that the effort to colonize persons
of African descent, with their consent, upon the continent or
elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the government
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 any
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 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 have not
been 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
observed and obeyed as such.

“‘_Article --._ All officers or persons of 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 the service.

“‘_Section 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:

“‘_Section 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
be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their
servitude, and not again held as slaves.

“_Section 10._ And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping
into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any
of the States, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or
hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against
the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make
oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive
is alleged to be due, is his lawful owner, and has not been in
arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in
any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in
the military or naval service of the United States shall, under
any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the
claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person,
or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being
dismissed from the service.

“And I do hereby enjoin upon, and order all persons engaged in the
military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey
and enforce within their respective spheres of service, the act and
sections above recited.

“And the executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of
the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout
the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional
relation between the United States and their respective States and
people, if the relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be
compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including
the loss of slaves.

“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 twenty-second day of
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the
eighty-seventh.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

This herald of freedom to millions was, of course, intensely disliked by those who omitted no opportunity to cavil at the Administration. As efforts were making--not entirely without success--to embarrass the Government in securing the necessary reinforcements for the army, and certain lewd fellows of the baser sort holding themselves in readiness to take advantage of the bitter prejudices existing in the minds of a portion of the people against the negroes among us, the following proclamation was issued two days later, that no one might plead ignorance of results, if such treasonable practices should be persisted in:

“WHEREAS, It has become necessary to call into service, not only
volunteers, but also portions of the militia of the States by
draft, in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United
States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the
ordinary processes of law from hindering this measure, and from
giving aid and comfort in various ways to the insurrection:

“Now, therefore, be it ordered:

“_First._ That during the existing insurrection, and as a necessary
measure for suppressing the same, all rebels and insurgents, their
aiders and abettors, within the United States, and all persons
discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts,
or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and comfort to
the rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be
subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by
courts-martial or military commission.

“_Third._ That the writ of _habeas corpus_ is suspended in respect
to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the
rebellion shall be imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military
prison, or other place of confinement, by any military authority or
by the sentence of any court-martial or military commission.

“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 twenty-fourth day of
September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the
eighty-seventh.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

It would be paying but a poor compliment to the sagacity which prompted this proclamation, if one were not obliged to say that it was exceedingly distasteful to many. Truth, however, compels us to add that the evils aimed at ceased, to a very great extent, shortly after its appearance.

The following order, issued November 16th, 1862, is but one among the many evidences of that deep and earnest reverence for Christianity which formed a noticeable feature, not only in most of Mr. Lincoln’s official papers, but also in the character of the man:

“The President, Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, desires
and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath, by the officers
and men in the military and naval service. The importance, for man
and beast, of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of
Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best
sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine
will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to
the measure of strict necessity.

“The discipline and character of the National forces should not
suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation
of the day or name of the Most High. ‘At this time of public
distress,’ adopting the words of Washington in 1776, ‘men may find
enough to do in the service of God and their country, without
abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.’ The first general
order issued by the Father of his Country, after the Declaration of
Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were
founded and should ever be defended: ‘The General hopes and trusts
that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes
a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of
his country.’

“ABRAHAM LINCOLN.”

On the 1st day of January, 1863, appeared that proclamation which was to supplement that of September 22d, 1862, crowning with complete fullness that great work and giving it health and being:

“WHEREAS, On the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was
issued by the President of the United States, containing, among
other things, the following, to wit:

“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 any designated part of a State the people
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall
be 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 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 repressing 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 of the first above-mentioned
order 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 Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South
Carolina, North 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 self-defence, 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, 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 the eighty-seventh.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”