under proper guidance and conservative management, to give their own
direct aid to the cause of nationality. In the course of the succeeding
two years, the Border States sent into the field in the Union ranks some
fifty thousand men. At certain points of the conflict, the presence of
these Union men of Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and Missouri was the
deciding factor. While these men were willing to fight for the Union,
they were strongly opposed to being used for the destruction of slavery
and for the freeing of the blacks. The acceptance, therefore, of the
policy that was pressed by the extreme anti-slavery group, for immediate
action in regard to the freeing of the slaves, would have meant at once
the dissatisfaction of this great body of loyalists important in number
and particularly important on account of their geographical position.
Lincoln was able, although with no little difficulty, to hold back the
pressure of Northern sentiment in regard to anti-slavery action until
the course of the War had finally committed the loyalists of the Border
States to the support of the Union. For the support of this policy, it
became necessary to restrain certain of the leaders in the field who
were mixing up civil and constitutional matters with their military
responsibilities. Proclamations issued by Fremont in Missouri and later
by Hunter in South Carolina, giving freedom to the slaves within the
territory of their departments, were promptly and properly disavowed.
Said Lincoln: "A general cannot be permitted to make laws for the
district in which he happens to have an army."

The difficulties in regard to the matter of slavery during the war
brought Lincoln into active correspondence with men like Beecher and
Greeley, anti-slavery leaders who enjoyed a large share of popular
confidence and support. In November, 1861, Lincoln says of Greeley: "His
backing is as good as that of an army of one hundred thousand men."
There could be no question of the earnest loyalty of Horace Greeley.