States shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on
the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor
of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the
claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.'

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the
military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey,
and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act
and sections above recited.

"And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens
of the United States, who shall have remained loyal thereto
throughout the Rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the
constitutional relation between the United States and their
respective States and people, if that relation shall have been
suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of
the United States, including the loss of slaves.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-second day of
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States the
eighty-seventh.

[L. S.] "ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"By the President:
"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_."

But why this change in the views of the President? History, thus far,
is left to conjecture. It was hinted that our embassadors in Western
Europe had apprised the State Department at Washington that an early
recognition of the Southern Confederacy was possible, even probable.
It was also stated that he was waiting for the issue at the battle of
Antietam, which was fought on the 17th--five days before the
proclamation was issued. But neither explanation stands in the light
of the positive and explicit language of the President on the 13th of
September. However, he issued the proclamation,--the Divine Being may
have opened his eyes to see the angel that was to turn him aside from
the destruction that awaited the Union that he sought to save with
slavery preserved!

The sentiment of the people upon the wisdom of the proclamation was
expressed in the October elections. New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois went democratic; while the
supporters of the Administration fell o