we afford to send them forward to their masters, to be by them armed
against us, or used in producing supplies to sustain the Rebellion?

"Their labor may be useful to us; withheld from the Enemy it lessens his
Military resources, and withholding them has no tendency to induce the
horrors of Insurrection, even in the Rebel communities. They constitute
a Military resource, and, being such, that they should not be turned
over to the Enemy is too plain to discuss. Why deprive him of supplies
by a blockade, and voluntarily give him men to produce them?

"The disposition to be made of the Slaves of Rebels, after the close of
the War, can be safely left to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress.
The Representatives of the People will unquestionably secure to the
Loyal Slaveholders every right to which they are entitled under the
Constitution of the Country.

SIMON CAMERON.
"Secretary of War."


The language of this modification is given to show that the President,
at the close of the year 1861, had already reached a further step
forward toward Emancipation--and the sound reasoning upon which he made
that advance. He was satisfying his own mind and conscience as he
proceeded, and thus, while justifying himself to himself, was also
simultaneously carrying conviction to the minds and consciences of the
People, whose servant and agent he was.

That these abandoned Slaves would "constitute a Military resource" and
"should not be turned over to the Enemy" and that "their labor may be