PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON EMAN CIPATION.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 46, 15 September 1864, Page 3

PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON EMAN CIPATION.

90m.9 citizen s ' "of "'Xenjp2ky7r^ftfln''S*^^. .an; mtoinew "w ith tne^reside&^were'So'*' pleased with his remarke-that they asked him to let them have a,, permanent record of;them. He complied with the request, and wrote, as follows, in; a cominiinicatipn dated the 4th of May :-— • ; v; ;" I am naturally aVti-sla very. If slavery is nofrwrorig, notching: is wrong. I cannot remember wherrl did not think so and feel, :And y.et-X h ave, neveivun--1 deratood that the rresiden cy conferred upon me an right to act officially upon this judgment' arid^ feeling. It was/injthe oath I -tp ok- that I would to the best of my aoiHty, .preserve,' protect, and defend the Conslt itution of the IJnited States/ I couldno.trtake>the-offico-without' taking the oath: h v Nor was it in my view that I might take -an. oath- to get power and break the oath; mousing ,'the power. I understood, too, 1 ' that in jprdinary civil administration this oath "even forbade me to -practically " indulge my primary, abstract judgment 'on the moral question of .slavery. I. had publicly declard this may times and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I ; have,dQne no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feslirig on slavery. I did understand, however, thatrmy oath to preserve Constitution to the, best of my ability imposed. upon me. the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that G-dvernment —^hat. nation of which that Constitution was the organic law was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution?' :r ßy genera law, life and limb must be protected ; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life ;■ but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I feel that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispensable, to the prservation of the Constitution. Eight or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if to .save slavery or any ■ minor matter I should permit the wreck of G-overnment, country, and Constitution altogether. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military emancipation I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When a little later, G-eneral Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later, G-eneral Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When, in March, and May, and July, 18(52, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border States to favour compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it I" ■hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I v, r a.s not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations ; none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white miltary foree — -no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite 130,000 soldiers, seamen, and labourers. These are palpable facta, about which, as facts, there can be no cavilling. We have the men, and we could not have had them without the measure. And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself by writing down in one line that he is in favor of subduing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that he is in favour of taking these 130,000 men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his cause 30 stated, it is onlybecause he cannot face the truth. I add a word, which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle the nations position is not what either party or any man devised or expected. G-od alone can claim it. Whether it is tending seems plain. If G-od now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of G-od."