might be enlisted to fight for the Union.” Mr. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, expresses on its face that it was issued on “military necessity.”

[Pg 18]

In fact, this proclamation did not really emancipate at all, for it applied only to those slaves who were held in those States and “parts of States” then “in rebellion,” and by express exception did not extend to Negroes within the territory under control of the Federal Government.

It is of record that, in some instances, owners near the Federal lines sent their servants[Pg 19] into the territory occupied by the Federal troops to evade the proclamation.

[Pg 19]

A story is told of an officer under General Butler, on the James River, who, having a Negro baby left on his hands by a refugee mother who had returned to her home, sent the child back to her. Someone reported that he was sending refugee Negroes back and the matter was investigated. His defence was that he had sent the baby back to the only place where he was free, to wit: within the region occupied by the rebels.

Meantime, there was much reflection and no little discussion as to the subject among the Southern people. The loyalty of the Negroes had made a deep impression on them, and they were beginning to recognize the feeling of the European countries touching slavery.[8]

[Pg 20]

[Pg 20]

The Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery) failed to pass in the spring of 1864 and was not passed until January 31, 1865, when all the Republicans and thirteen Democrats voted for it. Slavery, however, was abolished by the final conquest of the South and the enforced acquiescence of the Southern people, who recognized that the collapse of the Confederacy had effected what legal enactments had not been able to accomplish. Returning soldiers brought their body-servants home with them, and on arrival informed them that they were free; in some instances giving them the horses they had ridden, or dividing with them whatever money they had.[9] Throughout the South, the Negroes were told by their owners that they were free, in some cases receiving regular papers of manumission.

[Pg 21]

[Pg 21]

IV

No race ever behaved better 

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