The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln : Chapter 9 - Freedom For The Slaves

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nine of the Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln by
Helen Nicolay. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
recording by Tom Weiss Tom's audiobooks dot Com. Chapter nine,
Freedom for the Slaves, by no means the least of
the evils of slavery was a dread which had haunted

(00:22):
every Southern household from the beginning of the government, that
the slaves might one day rise in revolt and take
sudden vengeance upon their masters. This vague terror was greatly
increased by the outbreak of the Civil War. It stands
to the lasting credit of the Negro race that the
wrongs of their long bondage provoked them to no such crime,

(00:43):
and that the war seems not to have suggested, much
less started any such attempt. Indeed, even when urged to
violence by white leaders, as the slaves of Maryland had
been in eighteen fifty nine during John Brown's raid in
Harper's Ferry, they had refused to respond. Nevertheless, it was
plain from the first that slavery was to play an

(01:04):
important part in the Civil War. Not only were the
people of the South battling for the principle of slavery,
their slaves were a great source of military strength. They
were used by the Confederates in building forts, hauling supplies,
and in a hundred ways that added to the effectiveness
of their armies in the field. On the other hand,

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the very first result of the war was to give
adventurous or discontented slaves a chance to escape into Union camps, where,
even against orders to the contrary, they found protection for
the sake of the help they could give as cooks,
servants or teamsters, the information they brought about the movements
of the enemy, or the great service they were able
to render as guides. Practically. Therefore, at the very start

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the war created a bond of mutual sympathy between the
Southern Negro and the Union volunteer. And as fast as
Union troops advanced, as secession masters fled, so certain number
found freedom in Union camps. At some points this became
a positive embarrassment to Union commanders. A few days after
General Butler took command of the Union troops at Portress

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Monroe in May eighteen sixty one, the agent of a
rebel master came to insist on the return of three slaves,
demanding them under the fugitive slave Law. Butler replied that
since their master claimed Virginia to be a foreign country
and no longer a part of the United States, he
could not, at the same time claim that the fugitive

(02:33):
slave law was in force and that his slaves would
not be given up unless he returned and took the
oath of allegiance to the United States. In reporting this,
a newspaper pointed out that as the breastworks in batteries
which had risen so rapidly for Confederate defense, were built
by slave labour, negroes were undoubtedly contraband of war like

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powder and shot and other military supplies, and should no
more be given back to the rebels than so many
cannon or guns. The idea was so pertinent, and the
justice of it so plain, that the name contrabands sprang
at once into use. But while this happy explanation had
more convincing effect on popular thought than a volume of discussion,

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it did not solve the whole question. By the end
of July, General Butler had on his hands nine hundred contrabands, men,
women and children of all ages, and he wrote to
inquire what was their real condition? Where they slaves or free?
Could they be considered fugitive slaves when their masters had
run away and left them. How should they be disposed of?

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It was a nodding problem, and upon its solution might
depend the loyalty or secession of the border slave states
of Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, which up to
that time had not decided whether to remain in the
Union or to cast their fortunes with the South. In
dealing with this perplexing subject, mister Lincoln kept in mind

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one of his favorite stories, the one on the Methodist
presiding elder, who was riding about his circuit during the
spring fresh chefs. A young and anxious companion asked how
they should ever be able to cross the swollen waters
of Fox River, which they were approaching, and the elder
quieted him by saying that he made it the rule
of his life never to cross Fox River until he

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came to it. The President, following this rule, did not
immediately decide to question, but left it to be treated
at the discretion of each commander. Under this theory, some
commanders admitted black people to their camps, while others refused
to receive them. The Kurt formula of general orders, we
are neither Negro steelers nor Negro catchers was easily read

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to justify either course. Congress greatly advanced the problem shortly
after the Battle of bull Run by passing a law
which took away a master's right to his slave when
with his consent such slave was employed in service or
labor hostile to the United States. On the general question
of slavery, the President's mind was fully made up. He

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felt that he had no right to interfere with slavery
where slavery was lawful, just because he himself did not
happen to like it. For he had sworn to do
all in his power to preserve, protect, and defend the
government and its laws, and slavery was lawful in the
Southern States. When freeing the slaves should become necessary in
order to preserve the government, then it would be his

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duty to free them. Until that time came, it was
equally his duty to let them alone. Twice, during the
early part of the war, military commanders issued orders freeing
slaves in the districts over which they had control, and
twice he refused to allow these orders to stand. No
commanding general should do such a thing upon his responsibility

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without consulting, he said, And he added that whether he,
as commander in chief, had the power to free slaves,
and whether at any time the use of such power
should become necessary, were questions which he reserved to himself.
He did not feel justified in leaving such decisions to
commanders in the field. He even refused at that time

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to allow Secretary Cameron to make a public announcement that
the government might find it necessary to armed slaves and
employ them as soldiers. He would not cross Fox River
until he came to it. He would not take any
measure until he felt it to be absolutely necessary. Only
a few months later he issued his first proclamation of emancipation,

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but he did not do so until convinced that he
must do this in order to put down the rebellion.
Long ago, he had considered and in his own mind, adopted,
a plan of dealing with the slavery question, the simple
easy plan, which while a member of Congress, he had
proposed for the District of Columbia that on condition of
the slave owner's voluntarily giving up their slaves, they should

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be paid a fair price for them by the federal government.
Delaware was a slave state and seen an excellent place
in which to try this experiment of compensated emancipation, as
it was called, for, there were, all told, only about
one thousand, seven hundred and ninety eight slaves left in
the state. Without any public announcement of his purpose, he

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offered to the citizens of Delaware, through their representative in Congress,
four hundred dollars for each of these slaves, the payment
to be made not all at once, but yearly during
a period of thirty one years. He believed that if
Delaware could be induced to accept this offer, Maryland might
follow her, and that afterward other states would allow themselves

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to be led along the same easy way. The Delaware
House of Representatives voted in favor of the proposition, but
five of the nine members of the Delaware Senate scornfully
repelled the abolition bribe, as they chose to call it,
and the project withered in the bud. Mister Lincoln did
not stop at this failure, but on March sixth, eighteen

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sixty two, sent a special message to the Senate House
of Representatives recommending that Congress adopted joint resolution favoring and
practically offering gradual compensated emancipation to any state that saw
fit to accept it, pointing out at the same time
the federal government claimed no right to interfere with slavery
within the states, and that if the offer were accepted,

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it must be done as a matter of free choice.
The Republican journals of the North devoted considerable space to
discussing the President's plan, which in the main was favorably received,
but it was thought that it must fail on the
score of expense. The President answered this objection in a
private letter to a Senator, proving that less than one

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half day's cost of war would pay for all the
slaves in Delaware at four hundred dollars each, and less
than eighty seven days cost of war would pay for
all in Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri.
Do you doubt, he asked, that taking such a step
on the part of those states and this district would
shorten the war more than eighty seven days, and thus

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be an actual saving of expense. Both houses of Congress
favored the resolution and also passed the bill immediately freeing
the slaves in the District of Columbia on the payment
to their loyal owners of three hundred dollars for each slave.
This last bill was signed by the President and became
a law on April sixteen, eighteen sixty two. So, although

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he had been unable to bring it about when a
member of Congress thirteen years before, it was he, after all,
who finally swept away that scandal of the negro livery
stable in the shadow of the dome of the Capitol.
Congress as well as the President, was thus pledged to
compensate it emancipation, and if any of the border slave
states had shown a willingness to be except the generosity

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of the government, their people might have been spared the
loss that overtook all slave owners. On the first of
January eighteen sixty three, the President twice called the representatives
and senators of these states to the White House and
urged his plan most eloquently, but nothing came of it. Meantime,
the military situation continued most discouraging. The advance of the

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Army of the Potomac upon Richmond became a retreat. The
commanders in the West could not get control of the
Mississippi River, and worst of all, in spite of their
cheering assurance that we are coming, Father Abraham three hundred
thousand strong. The people of the country were saddened and
filled with the most gloomy forebodings because of the president's
call for so many new troops. It had got to

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be Midsummer eighteen sixty two, mister Lincoln said, in telling
an artist's friend the history of his most famous official act.
Things had gone from bad to worse until I felt
that we had reached the end of our rope on
the plan of operations we had been pursuing, that we
had about played our last card, and must change our
tactics or lose the game. I now determined upon the

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adoption of the emancipation policy, and without consultation with for
the knowledge of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft
of a proclamation, an after much anxious thought, called the
cabinet meeting upon the subject. I said to the Cabinet
that I had resolved upon this step, and it not
called him together to ask their advice, but to lay

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the subject matter of a proclamation before them suggestions as
to which would be in order after they had heard
it read. It was on July twenty two that the
President read to his cabinet the draft of this first
Emancipation Proclamation, which, after announcing that at the next meeting
of Congress he would again offer compensated emancipation to such

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states as chose to accept it, went on to order,
as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of
the United States, that the slave in all the states
which should be in rebellion against the government on January one,
eighteen sixty three, should then thenceforward and forever be free.
Mister Lincoln had given a hint of this intended step
to mister Stewart and mister Wells, but to all the

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other members of the cabinet it came as a complete surprise.
One thought it would cost the Republicans the fall elections.
Another preferred that emancipation should be proclaimed by military commanders
in their several military districts. Secretary Stewart, while approving the measure,
suggested that it would better be postponed until it could

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be given to the country after a victory, instead of
issuing it, as would be the case then upon the
greatest disasters of the war. The wisdom of the view
of the Secretary of the State struck me with very
great force. Mister Lincoln's recital continued, it was an aspect
of the case that in all my thought upon the subject,
I had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put

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the draft of the proclamation aside as you do your
sketch for a picture. Waiting for a victory. The secrets
of the administration were well kept, and no hint came
to the public that the President had proposed such a
measure to his cabinet. As there was at the moment
little in the way of war news to attract attention,
the newspapers and private individuals turned a sharp fire of

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criticism upon mister Lincoln. For this, they seized upon the
ever useful text of the slavery question. Some of them
protested indignantly that the President was going too fast. Others
clamored as loudly that he had been altogether too slow.
His decision, as we know, was unulberably taken, although he
was not ready to announce it. Therefore, while waiting for

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a victory, he had to perform the difficult task of
restraining the impatience of both sides. This he did in
very positive language to a man in Louisiana who complained
that union feeling was being crushed out by the army
in that state. He wrote, I am a patient man,
always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance,

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and also to give Apple time for repentance. Still, I
must say this government, if possible, what I cannot do,
of course, I will not do. But it may as
well be understood once and for all that I shall
not surrender this gain, leading any available card on play.
Two days later he answered another Louisiana critic, what would

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you do in my position? Would you drop the war
where it is? Or would you prosecute it in future?
With elder stalk squirts charged with rose water? Would you
deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give
up the contest, leaving any available means unapplied. I am
in no boastful move. I shall not do more than

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I can, and I shall do all I can to
save the government, which is my sworn duty as well
as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice.
What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.
The President could afford to overlook the abuse of hostile newspapers,
but he also had to meet the criticisms of over

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zealous Republicans. The prominent Republican editor Horace Greeley, printed in
his paper, The New York Tribune, a long open letter
ostentatiously addressed to mister Lincoln, full of unjust accusations, his
general charge being that the President and many army officers
were neglecting their duty through a kindly feeling for slavery.

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The open letter, which mister Lincoln wrote in reply, is remarkable,
not alone for the skill with which he answered this attack,
but also for its great dignity. As to the policy
I seem to be pursuing, as you say, I have
not meant to leave any one in doubt. My paramount
object in this struggle is to save the Union, and

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is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If
I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I
would do it. And if I could save it by
freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if
I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone,
I would also do that. What I do about slavery
and the colored race, I do because I believe it

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helps to save the Union. And when I forbear, I
forbear because I do not believe it would help to
save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall
believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I
shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will
help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when
shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views

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so fast as I shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view
of official duty, and I intend no modification of my
oft expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.
He was waiting for victory, but victory was slow to come. Instead,
the Union army suffered another defeat at the Second Battle

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of bull Run on August thirty, eighteen sixty two. For this,
the pressure upon him to take some action upon slavery
became stronger than ever. On September thirteenth, he was visited
by a company of ministers from the churches of Chicago,
who came expressly to urge him to free the slaves
at once. In the actual condition of things, he could,

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of course neither safely satisfy them nor deny them, and
his reply, while perfectly courteous, had in it a tone
of rebuke that showed the state of irritation and high
sensitiveness under which he was living. I am approached with
the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious
men who are equally certain that they represent the divine will.

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I hope it will not be irreverent for me to
say that, if it is probable that God would reveal
his will to others on a point so connected with
my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it
directly to me. What good would a proclamation of emancipation
from me do, especially as we are now situated. I
do not want to issue a document that the whole

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world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the pope's
bull against a comet. Do not misunderstand me. I have
not decided against the proclamation of liberty to the slaves,
but hold the matter under advisement, and I can assure
you that the subject is on my mind by day
and night more than any other. Whatever shall appear to

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be God's will, I will do it. Four days after
this interview, the Battle of Antietam was fought, and when
after a few days of uncertainty, it was found that
it could be reasonably claimed as a Union victory, the
President resolved to carry out his long matured purpose. Secretary Chase,
in his diary recorded very fully what occurred on that

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ever memorable September twenty second, eighteen sixty two. After some
playful talk upon other matters, mister Lincoln, taking a graver tone, said, gentlemen,
I have, as you are aware, thought a great deal
about the relation of this war to slavery. And you
all remember that several weeks ago I read to you

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an order I had prepared on this subject, which, on
account of objections made by some of you, was not issued.
Ever since then, my mind has been much occupied with
this subject, and I have thought all along that the
time for acting on it might probably come. I think
the time has come now. I wish it was a
better time. I wish that we were in a better condition.

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The action of the army against the rebels has not
been quite what I should have best liked, but they
have been driven out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no
longer in danger of invasion. When the rebel army was
at Frederick, I determined, as soon as it should be
driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation of emancipation,
such as I thought most likely to be useful. I

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said nothing to anyone, but I made the promise to myself,
and hesitating a little, to my maker. The rebel army
is now driven out, and I am going to fulfill
that promise. I have got you together to hear what
I have written down. I do not wish your advice
about the main matter, for that I have determined for myself.

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This I say without intending anything but respect for any
one of you. But I already know the views of
each on this question. I have considered them as thoroughly
and carefully as I can. What I have written is
that which my reflections have determined me to say. If
there is anything in the expressions I use, or in
any minor matter, which any one of you thinks had

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best be changed, I should be glad to receive the suggestions.
One other observation I will make. I know very well
that many others might, in this matter, as in others,
do better than I can. And if I was satisfied
that the public confidence was more fully possessed by any
one of them than by me, and knew of any
constitutional way in which he could be put in my place,

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he should have it, I would gladly yield it to
him But though I believe that I have not so
much of the confidence of the people as I had
some time since, I do not know that, all things considered,
any other person has more. And however this may be,
there is no way in which I can have any
other man put where I am. I am here. I

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must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility
of taking the course which I feel I ought to take.
It was in this humble spirit, and with this firm
sense of duty, that the Great Proclamation was given to
the world. One hundred days later, he completed the act
by issuing the final Proclamation of Emancipation. It had been

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a long established custom in Washington for the officials of
the government to go on the first day of January
to the Executive Mansion to pay their respects to the
President and his wife. The judges of the courts go
at one hour, the foreign diplomats at another, members of
Congress and Senators, and officers of the army and Navy
at still another. One by one, these various official bodies

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pass in rapid succession before the head of the nation,
wishing him successive prosperity in the new year. The occasion
is made gay with music and flowers in bright uniforms,
and has a social as well as an official character.
Even in war times. Such customs were kept up, and
in spite of his load of care, the President was

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expected to find time and heart for the greetings and
questions and handshakings of this and other state ceremonies. Ordinarily,
it was not hard for him. He liked to meet people,
and such occasions were a positive relief from the metal
strain of his official work. It is to be questioned, however,
whether on this day his mind did not lead the

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passing stream of people before him to dwell on the
proclamation he was soon to sign. At about three o'clock
in the afternoon, after three full hours of such readings
anhand unshakings, when his own hand was so weary it
could scarcely hold a pen, the President and perhaps a
dozen friends went up to the Executive Office, and there,

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without any pre arranged ceremony, he signed his name to
the greatest state paper of the Sentry, which banished the
curse of slavery from our land and set almost four
million people free. End of chapter nine. Recording by Tom
Weiss Tom's audiobooks dot Com.