e North would not
approve this action. He would follow Northern sentiment in this matter,
and not force it.

[Sidenote: The contrabands.]

407. Contrabands of War.--he war had scarcely begun before slaves
escaped into the Union lines. One day a Confederate officer came to
Fortress Monroe and demanded his runaway slaves under the Fugitive Slave
Act (p. 281). General Butler refused to give them up on the ground that
they were "contraband of war." By that phrase he meant that their
restoration would be illegal as their services would be useful to the
enemy. President Lincoln approved this decision of General Butler, and
escaping slaves soon came to be called "Contrabands."

[Illustration: A WAR-TIME ENVELOPE.]

[Sidenote: Abolition with compensation.]

408. First Steps toward Emancipation, 1862.--Lincoln and the
Republican party thought that Congress could not interfere with slavery
in the states. It might, however, buy slaves and set them free or help
the states to do this. So Congress passed a law offering aid to any
state which should abolish slavery within its borders. Congress itself
abolished slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation to the
owners. It abolished slavery in the territories without compensation.
Lincoln had gladly helped to make these laws. Moreover, by August, 1862,
he had made up his mind that to free the slaves in the seceded states
would help "to save the Union" and would therefore be right as a "war
measure." For every negro taken away from forced labor would weaken the
producing power of the South and so make the conquest of the
South easier.

[Sidenote: Lincoln's warning, September, 1862.]

[Sidenote: Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863. _Higginson_,
304-305; _Source-Book_, 315-318, 327-329.]

409. The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863.--On September 23, 1862,
Lincoln issued a proclamation stating that on the first day of the new
year he would declare free all slaves in any portion of the United
States then in rebellion. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation
Proclamation. This proclamation could be enforced only in those portions
of the seceded states which were held by the Union armies. It did not
free slaves in loyal states and did not abolish the institution of
slavery anywhere. Slavery was abolished by the states of West Virginia,
Missouri, and Maryland between 1862 and 1864. Finally, in 1865, it was
abolished throughout the United States by the adoption of