The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-11-14

ADlittyt nuu ever tfteu 70 prdsoENo bho
constitution II to save slavery or any
minor matter, should permit the wreck
OF government. country and constitution
all together
And so, at last, when in his Judgment,
the Indispensable necessity had come, he
struck the fatal blow, and signed the
proclamation which has made his name
immortal. BY II, the Presidents, as COM
man1er-in-chief In time OF actual armed
rebellion, aud as fit and necessary war
measure for suppressing the rebellion,
proclaimed all parsons naid as slaves In
the states and parts OF states then In re-
bellion to be thenceforwArd free, and de-
clared that the executive, with tine army
and navy, would recognize and maintain
their freedom.
In the other great steps Of the govern
ment, which led to the triumphant prose-
cution OF the war, he necessarily shared
the responsibility and the credit with the
great statesmen w no stayed up his hands
IN his cabinet-with Seward, Chase and
Stanton and the rest, and with his gener-
ais and admirals, his soldiers and sailors
but this great act was absolutely his
own. Tbs conception and execution were
exclusively his lie laid 1t before his
cabinet as measure on which his mind
was made up and could not be changed,
asking them only for suggestions as to
details lie CHOSE the time and the cir
cumstanoes under which the emanoips-
tion should be proclaimed and when it
should take effect.
it came not an hour too soon; but
public opinion in the North would not
have sustained ft earlier In the first
eighteen months of the war its ravages
had extended from the Atlantic to beyond
the Mississippi. Many victories in the
West had been balanced and paralyzed by
inRction and disasters In Virginia, only
partially redeemed by the bloody and In
decisive battle OF Antietam; reaction
had set in from the gensral enthusiasm
which had swept the Northern states
after the assault upon sumter. 1t could
not truly be said that they had lost heart,
but faction was raising its head. Heard
through the land like the blast OF bugle;
the proclamation rallied the patriotism OF
the country TO fresh saorifices and re-
newed arior. 1t was q step that could not
be revoked 1t relieved the conscience OF
the nation from an incubus that had OPP
pressed 1t from its birth. The United
States were rescued from the false pre-
dicament in which they had been from
the beginning, and the great popular
heart leaped with new enthusiasm for
Liberty and Union, hencsforth and for
ever, one and inseparable." 1t brought
not only moral but material support TO
the cause OF the government, for within
two years 100, QUO oolored troops were en-
listed in the military service and follow
ing the national flag, supported by all
the loyalty OF the North, and led by Its
choicest spirits. One mother said. when
hei son was offered the command OF the
first colored regiment, "lr ne accepts 1t
shall be as proud as II had heard that
he was shot, He was shot heading q
gallant charge of his regiment. The
Confederates replied to a request OF his
friends for his body that they "had
buried him under "a layer OF his niggers;"
but that mother has lived TO enjoy thirty
six years Of his glory, and Boston has
erected its noblest monument to his
memory.
The effect OF the proclamation upon
tho actual progress OF she war was not
Immediate, but wherever tine Feaeral
armies advanced they carried freedom
with them, and when the summer came
round the new spirit and force which
had animated the heart OF the govern
ment and people were manifest. in the
first week of July, the decisive battle Of
Gettysburg turned this tide of war, and
the fail or Nicksburg made the great
river free from Its source 60 the tiuh
On foreign nations the influence Of the
proclamation and OF these new victories
Was OF great Importance. In those days.
when there was no GABLE, IL was not
easy for foreign observers to appreciate
what was really going on; they could not
see clearly the true state of affairs. as in
the last year of the nineteenth century
we have BEEN able, by our new electric
vision, to watch every event at the anti
podes and observe Is effect. The rebel
amissaries, sent over TO solicit interven
ton, spared no pains to impress upon the
minds of public ana private men and
upon the press their own views OF the
character of the contest The prospects
of the Confederacy were always better
abroad than at home. The stock markets
of the world gambled upon its chances,
and its bonds at one time were In high
favor.
Such ideas as these were seriously held;
SO that the North was lighting for en-
pira, and the South for independence;
that the Southern states, instead OF be-
ing the grossest oligarchies essentially
founded on the right of one
man to appropriate the fruit OF other |
men toll and to exclude them from
equal rights, were real republics, feebler |
to be sure than their Northern rivals, |
but representing the same idea OF free |
dom, and that the mighty strength OF the
nation was being put forth TO crush |
them; that Jefferson Davis and the |
Southern leaders had created nation, |
that the repu bIican experiment had failed, /
and the Union had ceased to exist. But
the browning argument to foreign minds
was that 1t was an utter impossbility for
the government Ito win in the contest
that the success of the Southern states,
SO far as separation was concerned, was I
as certain as any event yet future and /
contingent could be that the subjugation |
of the South by the North, even II 1t |
could DO accomplished would prove a
to the United States and the
world, and especially calamitous 10 the
negro race anu that such victory would |
leave the psople Of the South
for many generations cherishing deadly |
hostility against the government and the |
North, and plotting always to recover
their independence.
When Lincoln issued his proclamation, |
he knew that all these ideas We're found
ed in error; that the national resources
were inexhaustible; that the government |
could and would win, ana that IL slavery |
were once finally disposed OF, the only |
cause OF difference being out OF the way, |
the North and South would come togeth- |
er again and, by-and-by, be as good
friends as ever. In many quarters abroad /
the proclamation was welcomed with en-
thuslasm by the friends OF America but l
think the demonstrations In its favor
that brought more gladness to Linooln's
heart than any other, were the meetings
held in the manufacturing centres by the
very operatives upon whom the war bore
the hardest. expressing the most entnusi- |