e me to
practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral
question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times and in
many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official
act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on
slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the
Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of
preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government--that
Nation of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it
possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By
general law, life _and_ limb must be protected; yet often a limb
must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given
to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional,
might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation
of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right
or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel
that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the
Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should
permit the wreck of government, country, and constitution,
altogether. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted
military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think
it an indispensable necessity. When a little later, General
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks,
I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable
necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military
emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the
indispensable necessity had come. When, in March and May and July,
1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to
favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable
necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would
come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the
proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the
alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the
Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I
chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than
loss; but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of
trial now shows no loss b