induce the President to depart from his gradual and progressive policy-progressive as the war seemed to demand and compel. The great majority of his party friends desired him at once not only to proclaim the emancipation of slaves of rebels, but also to put arms in their hands and employ them as soldiers. But the cautious Executive was not to be shaken from the policy which his vested powers and the then existing circumstances imposed upon him. He thus declares his policy: "Gentlemen, I am not a leader of the people in these great questions; I am but an instrument in their hands. If they require, for instance, an emancipation proclamation from me, they need only speak their demands through the action of Congress, and they will find in me an instrument to execute their desires. would not shape public opinion, but will be obedient to its will in this tremendous crisis of the Republic. Thus, by not transcending, I need never retract. What I do is indubitable-irrevocable." Most conclusively was the chief magistrate's course sustained by the great majority of the people. It was no less justified by its success; and the prescience which governed his action seems now one of the most remarkable evidences of his fitness for the crisis.

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He was most anxious to preserve peace with all the nations of Europe, and especially with England and France. It was his good sense and firmness that induced the American Government to give up Messrs. Mason and Slidell. The candid, sober thought of the people approved of the action of Government. At a later period he averted a dangerous dispute with the French Government by disregarding the vote of Congress on the subject of the Mexican Empire.

The Message* which Mr. Lincoln transmitted to Congress at its regular session, in December, 1861, was a document veined by the wise Conservatism which had distinguished his former papers. In alluding to the policy to be adopted to secure the suppression of the rebellion, he mentioned that he had been careful that the inevitable conflict necessary for the accomplishment of that purpose should not degenerate into a remorseless revolutionary contest. In every document which, as Executive, he officially promulgated, as well as in his language upon the leading exciting questions of the day or hour, his personal opinions were not left a subject of ambiguity. And his personal views-as expressed alike in his letter to Fremont, modifying the emancipation clause of that General's order, and in his letter to Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, refusing to remove the Federal troops from that State, and rebuking the unpatriotic demands of that official-in every thing, and at every time, his views have been of a strong, judicious, exalted nature, and they never failed to receive the respect and hearty support of his fellow-countrymen. A few weeks at most served to show to the public the wisdom and justice of every act where the President was called to exercise his supreme functions as commander-in-chief and as executor of the laws.

On the 6th of March, 1862, Congress received a Message from the President, suggesting the adoption of measures for the gradual emancipation of slavery. He proposed the adoption of a resolution of the following purport:

* Vide Appendix.

"Resolved-That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system."

"Such a proposition," he said, "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."

This important war measure was received with satisfaction in almost all loyal sections of the country. A note of outside approval was blown from England—the liberal press complimenting the recommendation of the President as a fair and magnanimous policy.

Mr. R. Conkling, of New York, prompted by this recommendation of the Executive, introduced, a few days thereafter, in the House of Representatives, a resolve embodying the emancipation views of the message. It was adopted by a vote of 89 to 31; subsequently passing the Senate, also, by 32 to 10. The act, as passed, was approved by the President, April 10th. This resolve was generally regarded merely as an experiment, but its passage was an important step in the development of the anti-slavery sentiment fast taking hold of the minds of all loyalists.

On the 9th of May, General Hunter, commanding the military department which included the States of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, issued an order declaring all slaves within his department to be thence

forth "for ever free," as a purely military necessity; whereupon the President issued a proclamation embodying the order of General Hunter, but rescinding the same, preferring, in case necessity should require it, to reserve to himself the promulgation of such orders, instead of leaving the question to the decision of his military subordinates. In this proclamation, Mr. Lincoln then quoted the resolve of Congress, already referred to, and appealed to his fellow-citizens in most earnest language, for a calm and enlarged consideration of the subject.

When the first steps are taken towards the consummation of some grand, humanitarian principle, others quickly follow; progress advances from steps to strides. Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia in the month of April, 1862. In making the act of Congress to this effect a law of the land, Mr. Lincoln transmitted to Congress an approving message.

During May, the ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans were declared open to the commerce of the world.

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The President sought, and obtained on the 12th of July, a conference with the members of Congress from the Border Slave States, in order to urge upon them, if possible, some action of their respective States in the direction of gradual emancipation-earnestly feeling that such action could not fail to strengthen the loyalty of their several States, and detach them still more indubitably from the cause of the slaveholders' Confederacy. Mr. Lincoln addressed these representatives upon the subject in his usual direct, earnest way.

A majority of the members thus eloquently and earnestly appealed to, submitted a reply, in which they

dissented from the President in his view that the adoption of emancipation measures would be beneficial to the cause of the Union, or hasten the termination of the war; but a minority submitted a reply of their own, in which was expressed a substantial concurrence in the wisdom of the President's views.

The Confiscation Bill followed, preceded and succeeded by other important measures, and Congress adjourned on the 17th of July.

On the 6th of August a great war-meeting was held at Washington, at which President Lincoln was present, and delivered a characteristic speech.

The great official act of the year and of the century followed, on the 22nd of September, 1862. Upon that day Mr. Lincoln issued the famous proclamation, whereby all persons held as slaves in the rebellious States were pronounced to be, on and after the approaching New Year's day, for ever released from bondage.

Two days had only elapsed since the promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation, when another mandate of almost equal importance dropped like a bombshell amid the ranks of the Southern sympathizers. This was the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Herein it was 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.