"He is of opinion," wrote Mr. Stanton, "that under the laws of Congress,
they [the former slaves] cannot be sent back to their masters; that in
common humanity they must not be permitted to suffer for want of food,
shelter, or other necessaries of life; that to this end they should be
provided for by the quartermaster's and commissary's departments, and
that those who are capable of labor should be set to work and paid
reasonable wages. In directing this to be done, the President does not
mean, at present, to settle any general rule in respect to slaves or
slavery, but simply to provide for the particular case under the
circumstances in which it is now presented."

All this was changed by the final proclamation of emancipation, which
authoritatively announced that persons of suitable condition, whom it
declared free, would be received into the armed service of the United
States. During the next few months, the President wrote several personal
letters to General Dix, commanding at Fortress Monroe; to Andrew
Johnson, military governor of Tennessee; to General Banks, commanding at
New Orleans; and to General Hunter, in the Department of the South,
urging their attention to promoting the new policy; and, what was yet
more to the purpose, a bureau was created in the War Department having
special charge of the duty, and the adjutant-general of the army was
personally sent to the Union camps on the Mississippi River to
superintend the recruitment and enlistment of the negroes, where, with
the hearty cooeperation of General Grant and other Union commanders, he
met most encouraging and gratifying success.

The Confederate authorities made a great outcry over the new departure.
They could not fail to see the immense effect it was destined to have in
the severe military struggle, and their prejudice of generations greatly
intensified the gloomy apprehensions they no doubt honestly felt. Yet
even allowing for this, the exaggerated language in which they described
it became absolutely ludicrous. The Confederate War Department early
declared Generals Hunter and Phelps to be outlaws, because they were
drilling and organizing slaves; and the sensational proclamation issued
by Jefferson Davis on December 23, 1862, ordered that Butler and his
commissioned officers, "robbers and criminals deserving death, ... be,
whenever captured, reserved for execution."

Mr. Lincoln's final emancipation proclamation excited them to a still
higher fre