t the United States, shall be then
thenceforward and forever free." It was a final tribute to those
engaged in rebellion that every agency, every instrumentality would
be employed by the government in its struggle for self-preservation.
It brought--as Mr. Lincoln intended it should bring--the seriousness
of the contest to the hearts and consciences of the people in the
Loyal States. He plainly warned them that every thing was at stake
and that if they were unwilling to meet the trial with the courage
and the sacrifice demanded, they were foredoomed to disaster, to
defeat, to dishonor. He knew that the policy would at first
encounter the disapproval of many who had supported him for the
Presidency, and that it would be violently opposed by the great
mass of the Democratic party. But his faith was strong. He believed
that the destruction of slavery was essential to the safety of the
Union, and he trusted with composure to the discerning judgment
and ultimate decision of the people. If the Administration was to
be defeated, he was determined that defeat should come upon an
issue which involved the whole controversy. If the purse of the
Nation was to be handed over to the control of those who were not
ready to use the last dollar in the war for the preservation of
the Union, the President was resolved that every voter in the Loyal
States should be made to comprehend the deadly significance of such
a decision.

The effect of the policy was for a time apparently disastrous to
the Administration. The most sagacious among political leaders
trembled for the result. Only the radical anti-slavery men of the
type of Sumner and Stevens and Lovejoy were strong and unyielding
in faith. They could not doubt, they would not doubt the result.
For many weeks the elections in the North promised nothing but
adversity. Maine voted a few days before the Proclamation was
issued. Ever since the repeal of the Missouri Compromise the
majorities against the Democrats in that State had varied from ten
to nineteen thousand. Under the pressure of military reverses and
the cry of an abolition war, the majority for Abner Coburn, the
Republican candidate for governor, was a little over four thousand;
and for the first time in ten years one of the districts returned
a Democratic representative to Congress in the person of L. D. M.
Sweat. Vermont, contrary to the tide of opinion elsewhere, increased
her majority for the Administration--an