attack, but retreated.

The other confederate division, under General Bragg, defeated a Union force at Memfordsville, (September 17,) and being joined by Smith, retreating from Cincinnati, Bragg also retreated southward, engaging in a battle at Perryville with the Union army under General Buell, (October 8.) Of all these movements in Kentucky and Maryland, nothing stands out in such relief as the defence of Cincinnati. It was better than any battle as a proof of the resolution with which the loyal people were now armed.

Their resolution was put to the test by repeated Reverses. reverses as the year drew to a close. General McClellan gave place to General Burnside as commander of the army of the Potomac, (November 7,) and he led his brave troops to fruitless slaughter in attempting to storm Lee's works at Fredericksburg, (December 13.) General Buell gave place to General Rosecrans as commander of the Army of the Cumberland, and he, marching against the confederates, was attacked by them at Stone River, near Murfreesboro', and but for General Thomas and the centre of his army, would have been routed, (December 31.) General Grant, succeeding General Halleck in command of the army at Corinth, held that post against the confederates, and on his marching westward, General Rosecrans defended it in a well-fought battle, (October 4.) But Grant's expedition against Vicksburg was a failure. As he advanced from the east, the officer in charge of his stores surrendered, and left him no alternative but to fall back, (December 20,) while his lieutenant, General Sherman, advancing from the north, was repulsed in battle at Chickasaw Bayou, (December 29.)

Emanci- Light was breaking from another quarter than pation. the battle-field. The first rift in slavery was very narrow, merely emancipating slaves employed in aiding

insurrection. But it was sure to widen. General Fremont, commanding the department of Missouri, issued a general order freeing the slaves of "all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States," (August 30, 1861.) This, the president directed, must be " so construed as to conform with, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress," a few weeks earlier, by which only such slaves were freed as were themselves employed in aiding insurrection. The next spring, (May 9,) another general order was issued by General Hunter, in command of the department of the south, or Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina: "The persons in these states, heretofore held as slaves, are declared forever free." This, too, was met by the president. "The supposed proclamation now in question," he asserted, "whether genuine or false, is altogether void. I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free, and whether at any time or in any case it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field," (May 19.) The president goes on to state that he had recommended (March) Congress to adopt a joint resolution, and that it had been adopted (April) by large majorities in both branches, declaring it the duty of the United States to coöperate, by pecuniary aid, with any state undertaking the gradual abolishment of slavery. Here, as may be remarked, he took the early anti-slavery ground in favor of a gradual and compensated emancipation. This, he continued, "now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the

states and people most interested in the subject matter. To the people of those states, now, I mostly appeal. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times." These signs were indeed plain. Congress had already abolished slavery in the District of Columbia on the principle of compensation to the slaveholder, (April 16.) It soon abolished slavery in the territories, without compensation, (June 19.) It soon after (July 17) passed an act to seize and confiscate the slaves of persons engaged in rebellion, which was what Fremont had attempted the previous year. But a greater measure than any of these was now in contemplation by the president. Early in the summer he read to his cabinet the draft of a proclamation emancipating all slaves in the seceded states. The secretary of state objected not to the act, but to the time of doing it; let it be done, he said, after victory. Time passed, bringing no victory, but deeper and deeper defeat, and at last the confederates were in Maryland. "I made

a solemn vow before God," said the president afterwards, "that if General Lee was driven back from Maryland, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." To a deputation from Chicago, which waited on him at this time, (September 13,) to urge emancipation, as if it were their measure, not his, he meekly replied, "The subject is on my mind by day and by night more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, that I will do." Antietam was fought, Lee was driven back, and then, on the 22d of September, came forth the president's proclamation, "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive gov

ernment of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons."

Effect of

Men

Those few words lifted the load under which the proc- the nation had staggered from its birth. The lamation. slaves in the states which had rebelled would be free at the beginning of another year, and it could not be long after when the slaves in the slaveholding states which had not rebelled would also be free. could look into an early future, and see no slave in all the national domain. It did not please them all; for the moment, it did not please most of them. In the elections. which soon followed throughout the loyal states, the republican majorities of the presidential vote were changed to a democratic majority against the administration; and though various causes were assigned, such as the condition of trade and the currency, the growing taxes, the arrests on political charges, and the reverses of the campaign, there can be no doubt that the most effective cause of all was the emancipation policy to which the administration stood committed. The British minister, Lord Lyons, wrote home of "a change in public feeling among the most rapid and complete that have ever been witnessed even in this country." Moreover the army and navy, or many officers and men, grumbled that the war for the Union should be turned into a war for the slave. As the president afterwards said, the good results of emancipation were not so immediate as was expected. But he stood firm, and though it was often predicted that the first of January would come and go without a second proclamation from him to give effect to the first, it brought out the following: "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states [that is, under confederate rule] are, and henceforward shall be,

free.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence unless in neAnd I further declare and

cessary self-defence. make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."