fter come, it shall not be rejected and kept a secret from
you. I freely acknowledge myself to be the servant of the People,
according to the bond of service, the United States Constitution;
and that, as such, I am responsible to them.

But, to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about the Negro.
Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and
myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be
Free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet I have neither adopted nor
proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your view,
provided that you are for the Union. I suggested compensated
Emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to
buy Negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy Negroes,
except in such a way as to save you from greater taxation to save
the Union, exclusively by other means.

You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have
it retracted. You say it is Unconstitutional. I think
differently. I think the Constitution invests the
Commander-in-Chief with the Law of War in Time of War. The most
that can be said, if so much, is, that Slaves are property. Is
there, has there ever been, any question that, by the Law of War,
property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed?
And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the Enemy?
Armies, the World over, destroy enemies' property when they cannot
use it; and even destroy their own to keep it from the Enemy.
Civilized belligerents do all in their power to help themselves or
hurt the Enemy, except a few things regarded as barbarous or cruel.
Among the exceptions are the massacre of vanquished foes and
non-combatants, male and female.

But the Proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If
it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot
be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some
of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for
the Union. Why better after the retraction than before the issue?
There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the
Rebellion before the Proclamation was issued, the last one hundred
days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming,
unless averted by those in revo