ion did not conflict with the one great object
of his administration. Hence in March, 1862, he heartily concurred in a
measure passed rapidly to Presidential approval, April 16, freeing the
slaves in the District of Columbia, a territory where there was no
question of the constitutional power of the national Government.

From February, 1862, until the issue of the first emancipation
proclamation in September, there was, in truth, a genuine conflict
between Congress and President as to methods and extent of emancipation.
Congress was in a mood to punish the South; Lincoln, looking steadily
toward re-union, yet realizing the rising strength of anti-slavery in
the North, advocated a gradual, voluntary, and compensated emancipation.
Neither party spoke the word "servile insurrection," yet both realized
its possibility, and Seward, in foreign affairs, was quick to see and
use it as a threat. A brief summary of measures will indicate the
contest. March 6, Lincoln sent a message to Congress recommending that a
joint resolution be passed pledging the pecuniary aid of the national
Government to any state voluntarily emancipating its slaves, his avowed
purpose being to secure early action by the loyal border states in the
hope that this might influence the Southern states[866]. Neither the
House of Representatives nor the Senate were really favourable to this
resolution and the border states bitterly opposed it in debate, but it
passed by substantial majorities in both branches and was approved by
Lincoln on April 10. In effect the extreme radical element in Congress
had yielded, momentarily, to the President's insistence on an
olive-branch offering of compensated emancipation. Both as regards the
border states and looking to the restoration of the Union, Lincoln was
determined to give this line of policy a trial. The prevailing
sentiment of Congress, however, preferred the punitive Confiscation
Bill.

At this juncture General Hunter, in command of the "Department of the
South," which theoretically included also the States of South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida, issued an order declaring the slaves in these
states free. This was May 9, 1862. Lincoln immediately countermanded
Hunter's order, stating that such action "under my responsibility, I
reserve to myself[867]." He renewed, in this same proclamation, earnest
appeals to the border states, to embrace the opportunity offered by the
Congressional resolution of April 10. In trut