and emphatically
declared himself against sudden Emancipation of Slaves. He had therein
distinctly said: "In my judgment, gradual, and not immediate,
Emancipation, is better for all." And now, in this second appeal of his
to the Border-States men, to patriotically close with the proposal
embraced in that. Resolution, he said: "The changes it contemplates
would come gently as the dews of Heaven, not rending or wrecking
anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been done, by
one effort, in all past time, as, in the providence of God, it is now
your high privilege to do! May the vast future not have to lament that
you have neglected it!"

[The following letter, from Sumner, shows the impatience of some of
the President's friends, the confidence he inspired in others
nearer in his counsels, and how entirely, at this time, his mind
was absorbed in his project for gradual and compensated
Emancipation.]

"SENATE CHAMBER, June 5, 1862.

"MY DEAR SIR.--Your criticism of the President is hasty. I am
confident that, if you knew him as I do, you would not make it. Of
course the President cannot be held responsible for the
misfeasances of subordinates, unless adopted or at least tolerated
by him. And I am sure that nothing unjust or ungenerous will be
tolerated, much less adopted, by him.

"I am happy to let you know that he has no sympathy with Stanly in
his absurd wickedness, closing the schools, nor again in his other
act of turning our camp into a hunting ground for Slaves. He
repudiates both--positively. The latter point has occupied much of
his thought; and the newspapers have not gone too far in recording
his repeated declarations, which I have often heard from his own
lips, that Slaves finding their way into the National lines are
never to be Re-enslaved--This is his conviction, expressed without
reserve.

"Could you have seen the President--as it was my privilege often
--while he was considering the great questions on which he has
already acted--the invitation to Emancipation in the States,
Emancipation in the District of Columbia, and the acknowledgment of
the Independence of Hayti and Liberia--even your zeal would have
been satisfied, for you would have felt the sincerity of his
purpose to do what he could to carry forward the princip