Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/499

CHAPTER XVIII.

UNITED STATES MEASURES, CIVIL AND MILITARY.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION—THE NECESSITY OF IT—EFFECT—THE SOUTHERN VIEW—NEGRO ENROLLMENT IN NORTHERN ARMIES—MEETING OF CONFEDERATE CONGRESS—MESSAGE—DEBATES-RESOLUTIONS—ARMY MOVEMENTS—THE CONFEDERATE SITUATION.

THE proclamation of September, 1862, was designed by President Lincoln as the precursor of the proclamation of emancipation dated to begin with the year 1863. " Mr. Lincoln was himself opposed to the measure, " says Mr. Julian, of Indiana, " and when he very reluctantly issued the preliminary proclamation in September, 1862, he wished it distinctly understood that the deportation of the slaves was in his mind inseparably connected with the policy." His doubts as to his right to emancipate embarrassed him, and his fears as to the change of the war policy from " saving the Union " to freeing the negro, delayed his action. The humane view of the question was not the most vivid. Political considerations alone brought on the determination to place the war " on a clearly defined anti-slavery basis."

Even then the philanthropic impulse which (if unhindered by selfish interests) might have controlled all parties, exerted no influence which can entitle the emancipation proclamation of January i, 1863, to veneration as one of the magna documenta of human freedom. It was not, as it should have been, a courageous declaration that every negro had the right, if any had, to be set

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