ubt as to the
validity of the title to the Costa Rica lands, and the matter was
dropped.

In his second annual message to Congress, transmitted to that body in
December, 1862, Lincoln touched, in conclusion, upon the great subject
of Emancipation, in these words of deep import:

I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper
addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief Magistrate of
the nation. Nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor
that many of you have more experience than I in the conduct of
public affairs. Yet I trust that in view of the great
responsibility resting upon me, you will perceive no want of
respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may seem to
display.... The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we
must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think
anew and act anew.

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and
this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another
of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in
honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the
Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to
save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even
we here--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving
freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike
in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed,
this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a
way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God
must forever bless.

An immense concourse attended the reception at the White House on the
first day of 1863, and the President stood for several hours shaking
hands with the endless train of men and women who pressed forward to
greet him. The exhausting ceremonial being ended, the proclamation which
finally and forever abrogated the institution of slavery in the United
States was handed to him for his signature. "Mr. Seward," remarked the
President, "I have been shaking hands all day, and my right hand is
almost paralyzed. If my name ever