er of
justice to the slave, there should be emancipation,--but not first do I
ask my countrymen to proclaim emancipation to the slaves in justice to
them, but as a matter of necessity to ourselves; for, unless it be by
accident, we are not to come out of this contest as one nation, except
by emancipation. And first, emancipation in South Carolina. Not
confiscation of the property of rebels; that is inadequate longer to
meet the emergency. It might have done in March or April or May, or
possibly in July; but, in December, or January of the coming year,
confiscation of the property of the rebels is inadequate to meet the
exigency in which the country is placed. You must, if you do anything,
proclaim at the head of the armies of the republic, on the soil of
South Carolina, FREEDOM,--and then enforce the proclamation as far and
fast as you have an opportunity; and you will have opportunity more
speedily then than you will if you attempt to invade South Carolina
without emancipating her slaves. Unsettle the foundations of society
in South Carolina; do you hear the rumbling? Not we, not we, are
responsible for what happens in South Carolina between the slaves and
their masters. Our business is to save the Union; to re-establish the
authority of the Union over the rebels in South Carolina; and, if
between the masters and their slaves collisions arise, the
responsibility is upon those masters who, forgetting their allegiance
to the Government, lent themselves to this foul conspiracy, and thus
have been involved in ruin. As a warning, let South Carolina be the
first of the States of the Republic in which emancipation to the
enslaved is proclaimed."

I left home for Washington on the Monday following the Sunday when the
first battle of Bull Run was fought. When near New Haven, the
conductor brought me a copy of a press despatch which gave an account
of the engagement and indicated or stated that the rebels had been
successful. On the seat behind me were two men who expressed their
gratification to each other, when they read the despatch over my
shoulder. When I had a fair view of them, I formed the opinion that
they were Southern men returning South to take part in the conflict.
It is difficult to comprehend the control which the States' Rights
doctrine had over the Southern mind. In my conversations with General
Scott the influence which the course pursued by Virginia exercised
over him was apparent. Those conversa