Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1864-05-10
dr, LincOln's Justification Of his Course
respecting Emancipation.

slavery. We will now give little space to con-
sideriug this letter.
1t is obvious from the letter, that while Mr..
Lincjlo anti.sayery, President Lincoln is neither
anti.s avery nor proslavery, neither one thing nor
the other. His abstract judgment on the moral
question Of slavery" he has never " pr actically
INDUCED 10 his ordinary civil administration
He believed that consttutionally, he had no right
to assail slavery, and when he did assan It he in.
Inmates that be knew he was doing an unoonst-
tulional, but" lawful " act And as President Lin
coin is neither anlsavery nor pro-slAyery, it evil
IDENTITY WIS only mere balance Of probabilities in
bis mind between making slavery universe or
freedom universal, which determined bis choice.
This reduces the Emancipation Proclamation,
which the people welcomed, not so much because
they sia in it the death.bIow Of the rebellion, as
because they saw 10 it much more than that, the
GENT suide of the Re ubic toward freedom and
the universal recognition Of the rights OF man, to
mere iece Of strategy, about which the Pres-
dent had TO more feeling than he would have had
in moving pawn il game Of chess.
In this Nv view Of Emancipation the Prcs-
dent may very justly say that he claims no merit
for he act. lie resisted Emancipation until he
could s and in is way no longer Whtn he at
las: res rt,d to it, it was only as choice Of evils,
preterring the evil OF Emancipation to the greater
evil Of the destruction Of the government. Gods
angry proyidences taught him, as they did Pharaoh,
that there was no escape for the Government ex
eepl in letting the slaves 90 free And accord
ingly the Border State proslavery men need
make no war upon the President but had better
direct their wrath against tie Justice and good
hess Of Go ." And ,hs three millions Of free
n,groes have to thank God and not Abraham
Lincoln, for the FIRST day Of January 1868. The
President did not control events but events
controlled him. So Pharaoh, doubtless, reason
ed, when the slave driving Egyr'ian, demonstrated
with him for having let Israel 90.
We believe the President does himself the
greatest injustice when he is content to thus JUS
tify his course to shareholders. Emancipation
rests for It's defense upon the strong foundation o.
everlasting justice, as well as upon the shifting
sand, of expedency. It was because it was just,
Just when Fremont proclaimed it in Missouri
when Cameron was censured for introducing it,
into his report, when Hunter published it in the
Department Of South Carolina, when Phelps an
ncunccd it's truths at Ship Isand-thAt The uds-
ment OF God did not slumber until ii was also
rec,gniz d as just at Washington II it had not
been Just It would never have been expedient.
II Mr.. LAc)n had not believed that il slavery
i, not wrong, nothing is wrong" he would never
have signed his name to the Proclamation Of
Freedom Even these judgments Of Heaven
would, 10 that case Only the more strongly have
impressed bis mind With the sospel a, given by
some Doctors Of Divinity in these days, which
holds thit the people who fight against slavery
fight against God. The logic Of events may, in.
deed, have furnished the President the occasion
Tor iSnioe his decree OF emancipation. but hi.
strong sense of the wronglulness and sin Of sa-
very, must have beea, after all, the grand impel.
ling motive which determined him to do the act.
We are not wiling that the position this people
are taking on the question Of slavery should be
dwaricd into an stf,ir OF no moral significance, a
mere cold aud deliberate estimate Of probabilltie,
aud material force' 1t is as though man should
DIN church to bring business to bis shop, or to
establish his character, or because it was the only
way he could save his life, 1t may accomplish all
be expects, and if il should be would be likely to
stick to it but il such church member could
make more money by joining the Devils oongre
CATION the next Sabbath, be would be likely to do
so. President Lincoln didn't do the greatest act
Of his life IN such cold, calculating way. and be
ought not to say he did, The act came warm
from his heart lie had been desiring to do it
from the commencement OF the rebellion. And
he ought to have rsloced as much when he nut
pen to paper, and struck the chains from three
million, Of bondmen,-when he felt the conui,u.
tionAl igatures which bound the great burden OF
slavery u hs back, loo,ening and giving way as
Pilgrim did when his burden rolled from him at
the foo, Of the cross. And what we find fault
with in th, letter is that he didn't tell these Ken.
lucky gentlemen so, instead of saying to them
that he hadn't on this sui ject any official feel.
ings ".at all. His abstract judgment and feel
ings on slavery" were at the foundation OF the
Proclamation. Mr., Hodges knows that, and the
people know il, and Mr.. Lincoln might as well
have said 81, and have inlimated to them that he
wa, glad beyond measure that the necessities oil
the war had given him the right to speak the
grandest word Of the century.
This letter unnecessarily mixes up the question
Of arming colored men with the question Of
Emancipation. We have never supposed there
was any constitutional objection 10 making SOL
der OF colored man, or Of taking slave Tor
thu purpose, any more than in drafting appren.
tees and minors and persons under contract for
service for limited periods, We know Kentucky
Shareholders have attempted to impose upon th'
government their idsa, that there we're in the con.
,ttution insurmounlable obstacles In the way oil
employing colored men in the army, but we have
never seen the clause in the constitution upon
which they reliedi and it certainly is not there
And the President, therefore, was under no ne
oessily Of waiting until all other remedies failed
before he had the constitutional right to employ
negro., to aid in 'uppressing treason II he did
SO visit, it was for other than constitutional rsa