, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, that
might adopt immediate or gradual emancipation. Some subsequent
proceedings on this subject occurred in Congress in the case of
Missouri; but as to the other States named in the bill, either the
neglect or open opposition of their people and representatives and
senators prevented any further action from the committee.

Meanwhile a new incident once more brought the question of military
emancipation into sharp public discussion. On May 9, General David
Hunter, commanding the Department of the South, which consisted mainly
of some sixty or seventy miles of the South Carolina coast between North
Edisto River and Warsaw Sound, embracing the famous Sea Island cotton
region which fell into Union hands by the capture of Port Royal in 1861,
issued a military order which declared:

"Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible;
the persons in these three States--Georgia, Florida, and South
Carolina--heretofore held as slaves are therefore declared forever
free."

The news of this order, coming by the slow course of ocean mails,
greatly surprised Mr. Lincoln, and his first comment upon it was
positive and emphatic. "No commanding general shall do such a thing,
upon my responsibility, without consulting me," he wrote to Secretary
Chase. Three days later, May 19, 1862, he published a proclamation
declaring Hunter's order entirely unauthorized and void, and adding:

"I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as
commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any
State or States free, and whether, at any time, in any case, it shall
have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the
government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under
my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel
justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. These
are totally different questions from those of police regulations in
armies and camps."

This distinct reservation of executive power, and equally plain
announcement of the contingency which would justify its exercise, was
coupled with a renewed recital of his plan and offer of compensated
abolishment and reinforced by a powerful appeal to the public opinion of
the border slave States.

"I do not argue," continued the proclamation, "I beseech you to make the
arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the
si