immense resources in every direction against the South. They had seized and held every Border State except Virginia, and retained the western portion of that State. The Federal forces held Missouri, where they had elected an overwhelmingly Union legislature, and occupied about half of Arkansas. They had captured New Orleans and Pensacola, subjugated much of Louisiana and the Gulf coast, and held Mississippi River except between Vicksburg and Grand Gulf. Nearly the entire Atlantic coast, except between Charleston and Savannah and one or two points in North Carolina, were lost to the Confederacy. West Tennessee had been subjugated and nearly all of Middle Tennessee was held by the enemy. Maryland had been forced into the ranks of the Unionists. Norfolk and Yorktown were in the enemy's hands. A powerful blockade operated seriously against the entrance of foreign recruits and supplies to the South, while Grant in Mississippi and Rosecrans in Tennessee threatened communications necessary for the support of the Confederate armies. The Northern forces had closed in their lines everywhere. And yet, in the field, the advantage had not been on the side of the Union. The victories of Lee and Jackson over the mighty armies of the Federals had excited universal wonder and inspired the Southern soldiers with the belief that their prowess would yet achieve Southern independence.

CHAPTER XII

CAMPAIGNS OF 1863—IN THE EAST

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, issued a proclamation on September 22, 1862, giving notice that he would on the first day of January, 1863, declare the freedom of all slaves within certain States, or designated parts of States. On December 1, 1862, President Lincoln sent to Congress his second annual message. In this, the ablest of his messages, he proposed three articles to be adopted by Congress as amendments to the Constitution and submitted to the States for ratification, and he discussed them at length. Those amendments provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves in the United States upon equitable terms. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation on

January 1, 1863.

Looking backward at this proclamation, we may now view it calmly. At the time of its promulgation it aroused a tumult of excitement. It is the duty of the historian to record the sentiments with which it was received and the effects which it produced.

In the North it was hailed as an immortal document, a charter of liberty, humanity, and justice. It was heralded to the world as proof of the progressive spirit and humanitarian civilization of the northern section of the United States, which at length had triumphed over the bigotry and ignorance of the South and now signalized the victory by this great act of emancipation.

By the South it was received with an outburst of indignation, as a wanton act of usurpation and tyranny, hypocrisy and malevolence, overriding the Constitution, violating the rights of the States, and revealing the real purpose of the Northern leaders from the beginning. President Lincoln was charged with treachery and duplicity. His former declarations were compared with his present act, and they could not be reconciled. The Southern press teemed with denunciation, the Southern people were embittered, and the struggle deepened.

Passing from the further consideration of the sentiments. of the participants in the struggle, let us examine the document itself as a State paper. The proclamation of January 1, 1863, declared all slaves free within ten of the eleven Confederate States, except in certain counties of Virginia and Louisiana. It omitted from the list the State of Tennessee, which State is nowhere mentioned in the proclamation. No reason is given for the exception of certain counties or the omission of one State. Four slave States which were not members of the Confederate States were not mentioned. It was not, therefore, a universal emancipation. On the contrary, the president says: "which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued." The president does not assign his reasons for making the proclamation partial instead of universal. We may conjecture them, but there seems to be no evidence on which the historian can base an authoritative statement.

A good reason may be found for the exception of Tennessee, based on the high moral ground of the obligation. of contracts and public faith; but at this stage of the conflict such considerations had but little weight, and there is no evidence that they were thought of. The deed of North Carolina ceding to the United States in 1790 the territory which is now Tennessee contained the following provision: "Provided, always, that no regulations made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emancipate slaves." By the

acceptance of this deed of cession, the United States was bound to observe the conditions of the grant. It is probable, however, that very different considerations led to the exceptions and omissions of the proclamation.

It is known that Emerson Etheridge and other prominent citizens of Tennessee, in an interview with President Lincoln, demanded that the State should be exempted from the proclamation for the reason that a large element of the Union men of Tennessee were slaveholders, and claimed protection for their property. It was also urged that if their slaves were freed they would join the Confederate cause. It has also been claimed that Tennessee was omitted at the solicitation of Andrew Johnson, then military governor of the State, who ardently desired to be himself the instrument of abolishing slavery in Tennessee through constitutional means, and by State authority. In this effort other Tennesseeans aided Governor Johnson's efforts, among them John M. Lea, a prominent Union man of Nashville who stood close to Johnson and joined in his pledges to the president that the legislature of the State would take the necessary action. There is no doubt that this was one factor in securing the omission of Tennessee, whatever other factors may have aided.

As a matter of fact, an effort was made later to abolish slavery in that State, before the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. A political convention of the Union men met at Nashville, and resolved itself into a Constitutional Convention. This convention adopted amendments to the Constitution of the State, abolishing slavery. These were submitted to a vote of the people at an election at which none but Union men were allowed to vote. This election, held February 22, 1865, resulted in a majority in favor of the amendments, but they were ignored when the people of the State came into power.

Whatever special influences may have been brought to bear to cause the exception of certain of the counties