boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time he himself
cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a special message
to Congress, that the United States should co-operate with any State
which might adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving such State
pecuniary aid to compensate the former owners of emancipated slaves. The
discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted the
resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a bill to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain people began to
look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be considered
seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon Lincoln thought that the time
was ripe, and that the edict of freedom could be ventured upon without
danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks.

The failure of McClellan's movement upon Richmond increased immensely the
prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act to stimulate the
vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more pressing. On July
21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with the draught of a
proclamation declaring free the slaves in all the States that should be
still in rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January,1863.
As to the matter itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind;
he invited advice only concerning the form and the time of publication.
Seward suggested that the proclamation, if then brought out, amidst
disaster and distress, would sound like the last shriek of a perishing
cause. Lincoln accepted the suggestion, and the proclamation was
postponed. Another defeat followed, the second at Bull Run. But when,
after that battle, the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac
and invaded Maryland, Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army
were now blessed with success, the decree of freedom should surely be
issued. The victory of Antietam was won on September 17, and the
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. It was