bject
has been suspended, but the President says never lost sight of. In
taking up the Proclamation, the President stated that the question was
finally decided, the act and the consequences were his, but that he
felt it due to us to make us acquainted with the fact and to invite
criticism on the paper which he had prepared. There were, he had found,
not unexpectedly, some differences in the Cabinet, but he had, after
ascertaining in his own way the views of each and all, individually and
collectively, formed his own conclusions and made his own decisions. In
the course of the discussion on this paper, which was long, earnest,
and, on the general principle involved, harmonious, he remarked that he
had made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the victory in the
approaching battle, he would consider it an indication of Divine will,
and that it was his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation.
It might be thought strange, he said, that he had in this way submitted
the disposal of important matters when the way was not clear to his mind
what he should do. God had decided his questions in favor of the slaves.
He was satisfied it was right; and he was confirmed and strengthened in
his action by the vow and the results. His mind was fixed, his decision
made, but he wished his paper announcing his course to be as correct in
terms as it could be made without any change in his determination. He
read the document. One or two unimportant amendments suggested by Seward
were approved. It was then handed to the Secretary of State to publish
to-morrow."

The discussion of Emancipation brought up at once the problem of what
should be done with the freed negroes. The very next day after the
preliminary proclamation was issued (September 23, 1862), the President
presented the matter to the assembled Cabinet. Deportation was
considered, and some of those present urged that this should be
compulsory. The President, however, would not consider this; the
emigration of the negroes, he said, must be voluntary, and without
expense to themselves. It was proposed to deport the freedmen to Costa
Rica, where a large tract of land (known as the Chiriqui Grant) had been
obtained from the government of Central America. Lincoln favored this in
a general way. He "thought it essential to provide an asylum for a race
which we had emancipated but which could never be recognized or admitted
to be our equals," says Mr. Welles. But there was some do