Year: 1863




and female. But the proclamation as
law is valid or not valid IF it is not
valid 1t wants no retraction. IF it is
valid it cannot be retracted any more
than the dead can be brought to life.


Some Of you profess to think that re-
traction would operate favorably to the
Union. Why better after the retraction
than before the issue? There was more
than year and half of trial to sup
press the rebellion before the proclama~
ton was issued, the last one hundred
days Of which passed under an explicit
notice that itwa coming unless averted
by those in revolt returning to their al
legiance.


/ The war as certainly progressed as ia
vorably to US since the issue Of the proc
lamation as before. / know, as fully as
one can know the opinions of others,
that some OF the commanders of our
armies in the field who have given us
our most important victories, believe the
emancipation policy and the aid of coll
ored troops constitute the heaviest blows
yet dealt to the rebellion. and that at
least one of those successes could not
have been achieved where it was, but for
the aid Of black soldiers.


Among the commanders holding these
views are some who have never had any
affinity with what is called abolitionism.
or the Republican party politics, but
who hold them purely as military opin-



ions. | submit their opinions, as being
entitled to some weight against the OBJ
jections often urged that emancipation
and arming blacks are unwise as mill
tary measures, and were not adopted as
such in good faith.


You say that you will not fight to free
negroes; some of them seem to be will
ing enough to fight for you, but no mat
ter, Fight.yo then exclusively to save
the Union. | issued the proclamation
and propose to aid you in saving the
Union. Whenever you shall have con-
quered all resistance to the Union, if I
Fshall urge you to continue fighting, it
will be an apt time then for you to de-.
claYo that yc}I will rot fsh. to free no.
groes thought that in your struggle
for the Union, to whatever extent the
negroes should cease helping the enemy,
to that extent it weakens the enemy in
his resistance to you. You think differ
emily. , SD


| thought that whatever negroes can
be got to do as soldiers, leaves SO much
less for whites to do in saving the Union.
Does it appear. otherwise to you? But
negroes, like other people, act upon mo-
tive. Why should they do anything for
US if we will do nothing for them IF
j.hey stake their lives for US, they must
IS prompted by the strongest motive,
even the promise Of freedom, and the
e,575Jaaise being made must be kept
TIE signs looks better. The Father
of Waters goes unvexed to the sea,
thanks to the Great Northwest for it.
Nor yet wholly to them Three hun.
dred miles up they met New England,
the Empire and keystone states and New
Jersey, heWing their way right and left,
The sunny South too, in more colors
than one, lent hand On the spot,
their part of the history was jotted down
in black and white. The Job was great
national one, and let none be banned
who bore an honorable part in it, And
while those who have cleared the great
river may well be proud, yet even that
is not all. 1t is hard to say that any,
thing has been more bragely and better
done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro,
Gettysburg and ON many fields of less
note


Nor must Uncle Sans webbed feet
be forgotten. At all the waters margin
they have been present. Not only on
the deep sea, the broad bay, and the
rapid river, but also up tie narrow mud
bayou, and wherever the ground was
little damp they have been, and made
their tracks.


/ Thanks to all for the great Repub-
lie; for the principles by which it lives
and keeps alive; for mans vast future
thanks to all Peace does not appear
50 distant as it did. hope it will come
soon, and come to stay, and so come as
70 be acorth the keeping IN all future
time. 1t will then have been proved
that among freemcn there can be no
successful appeal from the ballot to the
bullet, and that they who take sucn ap-
peal are sure to lose their case and pay
the costs. And then there will be some
black men who can remember that with
silent tongue, and with clenched teeth,
and with steady eye, and well poised
bayonet, they have helped mankind to
this great consummation; wltile I fear
that there aciU be same 0hite men, un-
able 10 torget that aoith malignant heart
and deceigut speech, they haze striren 10
4 hinder IT,


| Still let US not be over -sanguine Of
speedy and final triumph. Let us be
quite sober and let US diligently apply
our means, never doubling that just
God, in His own good time, will give US
the rightful result. Yours, very truly,
! rSignedJ A. LINCOLN,
-4~.t -