we never can when we bear the wastage of going to him."

But advice, expostulation, argument, orders, were all wasted, now as
before, on the unwilling, hesitating general. When he had frittered away
another full month in preparation, in slowly crossing the Potomac, and
in moving east of the Blue Ridge and massing his army about Warrenton, a
short distance south of the battle-field of Bull Run, without a vigorous
offensive, or any discernible intention to make one, the President's
patience was finally exhausted, and on November 5 he sent him an order
removing him from command. And so ended General McClellan's military
career.

XXIII

Cameron's Report--Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft--Annual Message on
Slavery--The Delaware Experiment--Joint Resolution on Compensated
Abolishment--First Border State Interview--Stevens's Comment--District
of Columbia Abolishment--Committee on Abolishment--Hunter's Order
Revoked--Antislavery Measures of Congress--Second Border State
Interview--Emancipation Proposed and Postponed

The relation of the war to the institution of slavery has been touched
upon in describing several incidents which occurred during 1861, namely,
the designation of fugitive slaves as "contraband," the Crittenden
resolution and the confiscation act of the special session of Congress,
the issuing and revocation of Fremont's proclamation, and various orders
relating to contrabands in Union camps. The already mentioned
resignation of Secretary Cameron had also grown out of a similar
question. In the form in which it was first printed, his report as
Secretary of War to the annual session of Congress which met on December
3, 1861, announced:

"If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels as
slaves are capable of bearing arms and performing efficient military
service, it is the right, and may become the duty, of the government to
arm and equip them, and employ their services against the rebels, under
proper military regulation, discipline, and command."

The President was not prepared to permit a member of his cabinet,
without his consent, to commit the administration to so radical a policy
at that early date. He caused the advance copies of the document to be
recalled and modified to the simple declaration that fugitive and
abandoned slaves, being clearly an important military resource, should
not be returned to rebel masters, but withheld from the enemy to be
disposed of in future as Cong