l Government is at stake. This is a fundamental idea
going down about as deep as anything!

* * * * * * * * *

"Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned these objections.
They indicate the difficulties that have thus far prevented my action in
some such way as you desire.

"I have not decided against a Proclamation of Liberty to the Slaves, but
hold the matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject
is on my mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall
appear to be God's will I will do.

"I trust that in the freedom with which I have canvassed your views I
have not in any respect injured your feelings."

On the 22d day of September, 1862, not only the Nation, but the whole
World, was electrified by the publication--close upon the heels of the
Union victory of Antietam--of the Proclamation of Emancipation--weighted
with consequences so wide and far-reaching that even at this late day
they cannot all be discerned. It was in these words:

"I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States of America, and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and
declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the War will be prosecuted for
the object of practically restoring the Constitutional relation between
the United States and each of the States and the people thereof, in
which States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed.

"That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again
recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to
the free acceptance or rejection of all Slave States, so called, the
people whereof may not then be in Rebellion against the United States,
and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may
voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of Slavery within
their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize Persons of
African descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere,
with the previously obtained consent of the Governments existing there,
will be continued.

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, all Persons held as Slaves within any
State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in
Rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and
forever Free; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the Mil