ned, if it were humanly possible, to keep that
task in the hands of the President, and out of the hands of Congress.
A first step had already been taken. In portions of occupied territory,
military governors had been appointed. Simple as this seemed to the
careless observer, it focussed the whole issue. The powerful, legal mind
of Sumner at once perceived its significance. He denied in the Senate
the right of the President to make such appointments; he besought the
Senate to demand the cancellation of such appointment. He reasserted the
absolute sovereignty of Congress.(8) It would be a far-reaching stroke
if Lincoln, in any way, could extort from Congress acquiescence in his
use of the war powers on a vast scale. Freeing the slaves by executive
order would be such a use.

Another train of thought also pointed to the same result. Lincoln's
desire to further the cause of "the Liberal party throughout the world,"
that desire which dated back to his early life as a politician, had
suffered a disappointment. European Liberals, whose political vision
was less analytical than his, had failed to understand his policy. The
Confederate authorities had been quick to publish in Europe his official
pronouncements that the war had been undertaken not to abolish slavery
but to preserve the Union. As far back as September, 1861, Carl Schurz
wrote from Spain to Seward that the Liberals abroad were disappointed,
that "the impression gained ground that the war as waged by the Federal
government, far from being a war of principle, was merely a war of
policy," and "that from this point of view much might be said for the
South."(9) In fact, these hasty Europeans had found a definite ground
for complaining that the American war was a reactionary influence. The
concentration of American cruisers in the Southern blockade gave the
African slave trade its last lease of life. With no American war-ship
among the West Indies, the American flag became the safeguard of the
slaver. Englishmen complained that "the swift ships crammed with their
human cargoes" had only to "hoist the Stars and Stripes and pass under
the bows of our cruisers."(10) Though Seward scored a point by his
treaty giving British cruisers the right to search any ships carrying
the American flag, the distrust of the foreign Liberals was not removed.
They inclined to stand aside and to allow the commercial classes of
France and England to dictate policy toward the United States. The