d was not
granted; but wholesale emancipation was going on by virtue of the
provisions of the Confiscation Act, slavery had been abolished in the
District of Columbia, and the territories had been restored to
freedom. Lincoln, moreover, left himself a margin for action according
to his declaration, in his interview with the Chicago delegation,
that, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, he had the right to
take any measure which might best subdue the enemy.[43]

Upon hearing of the Union victory at Antietam three days after,
Lincoln immediately seized this opportunity to announce the policy
upon which he had already decided. He had promised to withhold his
Emancipation Proclamation until the rebels were out of Frederick. Now
that they had been driven from Maryland and Pennsylvania, Lincoln was
ready to carry out his plan. On September 22, 1862, therefore, he
announced, read, and published his preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation.[44] It embraced propositions that provided for the
renewal of the plan of compensated emancipation, voluntary
colonization, military emancipation of all slaves in rebellious States
on January 1, 1863, and the ultimate recommendation of compensation to
loyal owners.

Although this proclamation was endorsed by an assembly of Governors
from the Northern States, who had already convened at Altoona,
Pennsylvania, to consider emergency measures for the protection of
their respective States,[45] the political test of this announcement
of military emancipation came, as expected, in the autumn elections.
Popular discontent had arisen as the result of military failure. The
Democrats boldly declared that the war of the Union had been changed
to a war for abolition of slavery. Party conflicts became bitter and
resulted in a loss to the Republicans although they still retained a
majority.

In his next annual message, however, President Lincoln did not discuss
the Emancipation Proclamation, but he renewed his argument for
compensated emancipation. On December 11, 1862, George H. Yeaman of
Kentucky introduced in the House of Representatives a resolution
dubbing the President's proclamation as unwarranted by the
Constitution and a useless and dangerous war message. This resolution
was tabled by a vote of ninety-four to forty-five. Four days later
Representative S. C. Fessenden of Maine, on the contrary, offered a
resolution putting into affirmative form the identical phraseology of
Mr. Yeaman's pro