dom to all the slaves in Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi,
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and the greater portion of
Virginia and Louisiana; enjoining good order on the freedmen; and
opening the army and navy to their enlistment. "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."

How far, it may be asked, was the military necessity on which the
proclamation was based actually met by its results? Immediate gain, in a
military sense, did not accrue. Not a slave was freed except as the
ground was conquered foot by foot. But by opening the door to the
enlistment of negroes, there was soon a substantial advantage won to
the Union armies; for, enlisting by many thousands, they proved
themselves docile, trustworthy, and not lacking in courage. In the last
two years of the war, they added nearly 200,000 men to the Union forces.
They were not considered equal to white soldiers, for they succumbed far
more easily to wounds and disease; and though their officers were chary
of exposing them in battle, their mortality was greater than that of the
whites. In a sense broader than the military, the first results of the
emancipation policy were adverse. It was said by many that the
proclamation would "unite the South and divide the North." The seceded
States could hardly be more united than they were before, but a fresh
motive was added to their struggle. In the border States, there was a
wide alienation of slave owners and their sympathizers. At the North, a
similar effect was obvious at first. From the day of the first
proclamation, a war now evidently waged in part for emancipation lost
favor with many who cared nothing for the slaves. The elections two
months later, in November, 1862, were disastrous. New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, all went against the
administration. Its majority in Congress was greatly reduced.

But the emancipation proclamation had struck deep to the hidden springs
of power. For the exigencies of a prolonged and desperate struggle, it
had evoked the full power of a great sentiment. It had roused the
passion of freedom which nerves men to suffer and die. It was an
unselfish passion,--it was for the freedom of other men that the North
now fought. The loss of the half-hearted and the materialists was
outweighed by the enlistment of the