good lesson to him to "Look out and do better next time!"

THE QUESTION OF EMANCIPATION

After he went to Washington, President Lincoln was between two fires.
One side wanted the slaves freed whether the Union was broken up or not.
They could not see that declaring them free would have but little
effect, if the government could not "back up" such a declaration.

The other party did not wish the matter tampered with, as cheap labor
was necessary for raising cotton, sugar and other products on which the
living of millions of people depended.

The extreme Abolitionists, who wished slavery abolished, whether or no,
sent men to tell the President that if he did not free the slaves he was
a coward and a turncoat, and they would withhold their support from the
Government and the Army.

Delegations of Abolitionists from all over the North arrived almost
daily from different cities to urge, coax and threaten the President.
They did not know that he was trying to keep the Border States of
Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri from seceding. If Maryland alone had
gone out of the Union, Washington, the national capital, would have been
surrounded and forced to surrender.

Besides, at this time, the armies of the North were losing nearly all
the battles.

To declare all the slaves down South freed, when the Government could
not enforce such a statement and could not even win a battle, would be
absurd. To one committee the President said: "If I issued a proclamation
of emancipation now it would be like the Pope's bull (or decree) against
the comet!"

A delegation of Chicago ministers came to beg Mr. Lincoln to free the
slaves. He patiently explained to them that his declaring them free
would not make them free. These men seemed to see the point and were
retiring, disappointed, when one of them returned to him and whispered
solemnly:

"What you have said to us, Mr. President, compels me to say to you in
reply that it is a message from our divine Master, through me,
commanding you, sir, to open the doors of bondage that the slave may go
free!"

"Now, isn't that strange?" the President replied instantly. "Here I am,
studying this question, day and night, and God has placed it upon me,
too. Don't you think it's rather odd that He should send such a message
by way of that awful wicked city of Chicago?"

The ministers were shocked at such an answer from the President of the
United States. They could not know, for Mr. Lincoln dare