or changed a line, touching it up here and there, anxiously
waiting the progress of events. Well, the next news we had was of
Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever. Finally,
came the week of the Battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no
longer.

"The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on our
side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home (three miles out of
Washington.) Here I finished writing the second draft of the
preliminary Proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the Cabinet
together to hear it; and it was published the following Monday."

It is not uninteresting to note, in this connection, upon the same
authority, that at the final meeting of the Cabinet prior to this issue
of the Proclamation, when the third paragraph was read, and the words of
the draft "will recognize the Freedom of such Persons," were reached,
Mr. Seward suggested the insertion of the words "and maintain" after the
word "recognize;" and upon his insistence, the President said, "the
words finally went in."

At last, then, had gone forth the Fiat--telegraphed and read throughout
the Land, on that memorable 22d of September, 1862--which, with the
supplemental Proclamation of January 1, 1863, was to bring joy and
Freedom to the millions of Black Bondsmen of the South.

Just one month before its issue, in answer to Horace Greeley's Open
letter berating him for "the seeming subserviency" of his "policy to the
Slave-holding, Slave up-holding interest," etc., President Lincoln had
written his famous "Union letter" in which he had conservatively said:
"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or
destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any Slave, I
would do it--and if I could save it by freeing all the Slaves, I would
do it--and if I could save it by freeing some, and leaving others alone,
I would also do that."

No one outside of his Cabinet dreamed, at the time he made that answer,
that the Proclamation of Emancipation was already written, and simply
awaited a turn in the tide of battle for its issue!

Still less could it have been supposed, when, on the 13th of September
--only two days before Stonewall Jackson had invested, attacked, and
captured Harper's Ferry with nearly 12,000 prisoners, 73 cannon, and
13,000 small arms, besides other spoils of War--Mr. Lincoln received the
deputation from the religious bodies of Chicago, bearing a Memorial fo