of late, in the light of a fuller knowledge, to be dislodged.[6] [Pg 16] [Pg 16] III Mr. Lincoln has been so generally declared to be the emancipator of the Negro race that it is probable the facts in all their significance will never be generally received. The abolition of slavery was no doubt his desire; but the preservation of the Union was his passion. And, whatever Mr. Lincoln may have felt on the subject of emancipation, he was too good a lawyer and too sound a statesman to act with the inconsiderate haste that has usually been accredited him. It was rather what he might do than what he actually did that alarmed the South and brought about secession. And the menace of destruction of the Union soon demanded all his energies and forced him to relegate to the background even the emancipation of the slaves.[7] [Pg 17] [Pg 17] On the 22d of December, 1860, after South Carolina had seceded, he declared that the South would be in no more danger of being interfered with as to slavery by a Republican administration than it was in the days of Washington. In his inaugural address he declared: “I have no more purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it now exists. I believe I have no right to do so and I have no inclination to do so.” This declaration he had already made before. Indeed, he expressly declared in favor of the enforcement of the fugitive-slave law. Congress, in July, 1861, adopted a resolution, which Lincoln signed, declaring that war was not waged for any “purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions” of the Southern States, “but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired,” etc. As late as March, 1862, he declared: “In my judgment, gradual[Pg 18] and not sudden emancipation is best for all.” The special message to Congress on this subject Thaddeus Stevens stigmatized as “about the most diluted milk-and-water gruel proposition that has ever been given to the American people.” The war had been going on more than a year before a bill was passed providing that all “slaves of persistent rebels, found in any place occupied or commanded by the forces of the Union, should not be returned to their masters (as had hitherto been done under the law), and they
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