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within their own limits.

Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full 100,000
are now in the United States military service, about one-half of which
number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage
of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and supplying the places
which otherwise must be filled with so many white men. So far as tested,
it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any. No servile
insurrection or tendency to violence or cruelty has marked the measures
of emancipation and arming the blacks. These measures have been much
discussed in foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion,
the tone of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same
measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and denounced,
and the annual elections following are highly encouraging to those whose
official duty it is to bear the country through this great trial. Thus we
have the new reckoning. The crisis which threatened to divide the friends
of the Union is past.

Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a resumption
of the national authority within the States wherein that authority has
been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a proclamation, a copy of
which is herewith transmitted. On examination of this proclamation it
will appear, as is believed, that nothing will be attempted beyond what is
amply justified by the Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given,
but no man is coerced to take it. The man is promised a pardon only
in case he voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the
Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute discretion,
and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is fully established by
judicial and other authorities.

It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State government
shall be in the mode prescribed set up, such government shall be
recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that under it the
State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be protected against
invasion and domestic violence. The constitutional obligation of the
United States to guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form
of government and to protect the State in the cases stated is explicit
and full. But why tender the benefits of this provision only to a State
government set up in this particular way? This section of the Constitution
conte