ject of voluntary emancipation by the
States would not succeed. Were it commenced by one or more of the
States, he had little doubt it would be followed by others, and
eventuate in general emancipation by the States themselves. Failing in
the voluntary plan, he was compelled, as a war necessity, to proclaim
freedom to all slaves in the rebel section, if the war continued to be
prosecuted after a certain date. This bold and almost revolutionary
measure, which would change the industrial character of many States,
could be justified on no other ground than as a war measure, the result
of military necessity. It was an unexpected and startling demonstration
when announced, that was welcomed by a vast majority of the people in
the free States. In Congress, however, neither this nor his project of
compensated emancipation was entirely acceptable to either the extreme
anti-slavery or pro-slavery men. The radicals disliked the way in which
emancipation was effected by the President. But, carried forward by the
force of public opinion, they could not do otherwise than acquiesce in
the decree, complaining, however, that it was an unauthorized assumption
by the Executive of power which belonged to Congress.

The opponents of the President seized the occasion of this bold measure
to create distrust and alarm, and the result of the policy of
emancipation in the election which followed in the autumn of 1862 was
adverse to the Administration. Confident, however, that the step was
justifiable and necessary, the President persevered and consummated it
by a final proclamation on the 1st of January, 1863.

The fact that the Administration lost ground in the elections in
consequence of the emancipation policy served for a time to promote
unity of feeling among the members when Congress convened in December.
The shock occasioned by the measure when first announced had done its
work. The timid, who had doubted the necessity and legality of the act,
and feared its consequences, recovered their equipoise, and a reaction
followed which strengthened the President in public confidence. But the
radical extremists, especially the advocates of Congressional supremacy,
began in the course of the winter to reassert their own peculiar ideas
and their intention of having a more extreme policy pursued by the
Government.

Thaddeus Stevens embraced an early opportunity to declare his extreme
views, which were radically and totally antagonistic to those of