diversity among the people."
This was accurate as well as generous, for though many Democrats had
opposed the war, none had avowed that for the sake of peace he would
give up the Union. Passing then to the means by which the Union could
be made to prevail he wrote: "On careful consideration of all the
evidence accessible it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with
the insurgent leader could result in any good. He would accept nothing
short of severance of the Union--precisely what we will not and cannot
give. Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and
inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided
by victory. The abandonment of armed resistance to the national
authority on the part of the insurgents is the only indispensable
condition to ending the war on the part of the Government." To avoid a
possible misunderstanding he added that not a single person who was
free by the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation or of any Act of
Congress would be returned to slavery while he held the executive
authority. "If the people should by whatever mode or means make it an
executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be
their instrument to perform it." This last sentence was no meaningless
flourish; the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting slavery could not be
passed for some time, and might conceivably be defeated; in the
meantime the Courts might possibly have declared any negro in the
Southern States a slave; Lincoln's words let it be seen that they would
have found themselves without an arm to enforce their decision. But in
fact there was no longer an issue with the South as to abolition.
Jefferson Davis had himself declared that slavery was gone, for most
slaves had now freed themselves, and that he for his part troubled very
little over that. There remained, then, no issue between North and
South except that between Independence and Union.

On the same day that he sent his annual message Lincoln gave himself a
characteristic pleasure by another communication which he sent to the
Senate. Old Roger Taney of the Dred Scott case had died in October;
the Senate was now requested to confirm the President's nomination of a
new Chief Justice to succeed him; and the President had nominated
Chase. Chase's reputation as a lawyer had seemed to fit him for the
position, but the well informed declared that, in spite of some
appearances on the platform for Lincoln