Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-09
LINcoLN's PRocLAMATIoN.
Original Draft of the Document Declar.
 ing the Slaves Free.

Original Draft of the Document Declar-
 ing the Slaves Free.
 Further conference (by the cabinet) was held on organizing negro regiments, but Lincoln decided that the moment had not yet arrived when this policy could be safely entered upon. Writes Chase: 'The im- pression left upon nay mind by the whole dis cussion was that while the president thought that the organization, equipment and arm- ing of negroes like other soldiers would be productive of more evil than good, he was not unwilling that commanders should, at their discretion, arm, for purely defensive purposes, slaves coming within their lines. But on the kindred policy of emancipation the president had reached a decision which appears to have been in advance of the views of his entire cabinet. Probably, greatly to their surprise, he read to them the following draft of a proclamation warning the rebels of the pains and penalties of the confscation act, and while renewing his tender of compensation to loyal states which would adopt gradual abolishment, add ing summary military order, as commander-in-c chief. declaring free the slaves of all states which might be in rebel lion on Jan. l, 1S63." The text of this first draft of the Emancipation proclamation is here printed for the first time: "In pursu- ance of the sixth section of the act of con- gress entitled An act to suppress insurrec- tion and to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes approved July 17, 1862, and which act and the joint resolution ex- planatory thereof are herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, do hereby proclaim to and warn all persons within the contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, aid ing, countenancing or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion against the gov ernment of the United States, and to return to their proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and seizures, as~vithin and by said sixth section provided
 "And hereby make known that 1t Is my purpose, upon the next meeting of congress, to again recommend the adoption of prac- t1cal measure for rendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection of any and all states, which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining the authority of the United States, and which may then have vol untarily adopted, or thereafter may volun- tarily adopt, gradual abolishment of slavery within such state or states; that the object Is to practically restore, thenceforward to be maintained, the constitutional relation be- tween the general government and each and all the states wherein that relation is now suspended or disturbed; and that for this oh- ject the war, as it has been, will be prose cuted. And as g fit and necessary military measure for effecting this object, I, as com mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, do order and declare 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 states wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then be practically recognized, submitted to and maintained, shall then, thenceforward and forever be free"
 Of the cabinet proceedings which followed the reading ofithis momentous document we have unfortunately only very brief memo randa. Every member of the council was, we may infer, hewildered by the magnitude and heldness of the proposal. The sudden consideration of this critical question reveals to us with vividness the difference in mental reach, readiness and decision between the president and his constitutional advisers. Only two of the number gave the measure their unreserved concurrence, even after discussion. It is strange that one of these was the cautious attorney general, the rep resentative of the conservative faction of the slave holding state of Missouri, and that the member who opposed the measure as whole, and proposed to achieve the result indirectly through the scattered and divided action of local commanders in military departments, was the anti-slavery secretary of the treas. ury, MT. Chase, representing perhaps more nearly than any other the abolition faction of the free state of Ohio. All were aston ished except the two to whom it had been mentioned a week before. None of the others had even considered such a step But from the mind and will of President Lincoln the determination and announcements to his cabinet came almost as complete in form and certain in intention on that memorable Tues day of July as when, two months later, it was given to the public, or as officially proclaimed on the succeeding New Years day, an ire. vocable executive eact.-Century,