The National tribune., 1900-05-24
Society. It perished in the great fire of
October, 1871.
MR.. LINCOLN'S OUTLINE OF HIS COURSE
AND VIEWS REGARDING SLAVERY.

October, 1871.
MR. LINCOLN'S OUTLINE OF HIS COURSE
AND VIEWS REGARDING SLAVERY.
More than year after the issue Of the
Emancipation Proclamation, Mr.. Lincoln,
IN writing to prominent Kentucky Union
list. gave an admirable outline of his views
and course regarding slavery. The state
ment should have a place in this chapter:
Il am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery
Is not wrong, nothing is wrong. / cannot
remember when | did not so think and
feel; and yet l have never understood that
the Presidency conferred upon me an un-
restricted right to act officially upon this
Judgment and feeling. 1t was in the oath
took that | would, to the best of my ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constltu-
ton of the United States. / could not take
the office without taking the oath. Nor was
IL my view that L might take an oath TO get
power, and break the oath in using the
power. understood, too, that in ordinary
civil administration this oath even forbade
me to practically indulge my primary
abstract judgment on the moral question
OF slavery. l had publicly declared this
many times and in many ways. and
l aver that, to this day, l have done no
official act in mere Difference to my abstract
judgment and feeling on slavery. l did
understand. however, that my oath to pre-
serve the Constitution to the best OF my
ability imposed upon me the duty of pre-
serving, by every Indispensable means,
that Government-that Nation Of which
that Constitution was the organic law
Was it possible to lose the Nation and yet
preserve the Constitution? By general
law, life and limb must be protected; yet
often = limb must be amputated to save a
life; but a life is never wisely given TO save
limb. felt that measures, otherwise
unconstitutional, might become lawful
by becoming Indispensable to the pres
ervation of the Constitution, through the
preservation of the Nation. Right or
wrong, assumed this ground, and now
avow it. | could not feel that, to the best
of my ability, had even tried to preserve
the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any
minor matter, | should permit the wreck
of Government, Country, and Constitution,
altogether. When, early in the war,
Gen. Fremont attempted military emanci-
patton, forbade it, because did not then
think it an indispensable necessity. When,
little later, Gen. Cameron, then Secretary
OF War, suggested the arming OF the blacks,
| objected, because | did not think it an
indispensable necessity. When, still later,
Gen. Hunter attempted military emancipa
ton, / again forbade it, because | did not
yet think the Indispensable necessity had
come. When, in March and May and
July, 1862, / made earnest and successive
appeals to the Border States to favor COM
pensated emancipation. believed the
DtlSdDlt UcttSSlty lOI uilllldi
cipation and arming the blacks would
come, unless averted by that measure.
They declined the proposition; and | was,
in my best Judgment, driven to the alter
native of either surrenderlng the Union,
and with it the Constitution, or of laying
strong hand upon the colored clement.
/ chose the latter. In choosing it, hoped
for greater gain than loss; but of this L was
not entirely confident. More than q year
of trial now shows no loss by it In our
foreign relations, none in our home popular
sentiment, none in our white military
force, no loss by it anyhow or anywhere.
On the contrary, it shows gain of quite a
hundred and thirty thousand soldiers,
seamen, and laborers. These are palpable
facts, about which, as facts, there can be no
cavilling. We have the men; and we
could not have had them without the meas
ure.
"And now let any Union man who COM
plains of the measure, test himself by
writing down in one line that he is for
subduing the rebellion by force Of arms;
and in the next, that he is for taking $780,
900 men from the Union side, and placing
them where they would be but for the
measure he condemns. If he cannot face
his case so stated, it is only because he
cannot face the truth
Il attempt no compliment to my own
sagacity. | claim not to have controlled
events, but confess plainly that events
Lt'e COlliOileu me. NOW, dI tlle ciIu VI
three years struggle. the Nations condi-
rtfOn is not what either party or any man
devised or expected. God alone can claim
it. Whittier it is tending seems plain.
If God now wills the removal of great
wrong, and wills also that we Of the North,
as well as you of the South, shall pay
fairly for our completely in that wrong,
impartial history will find therein new
causes TO attest and revere the justice and
goodness of God. Yours truly,
"a. LINCOLN" q
ITO ha continued