hness, certainly, roused
it to increased activity. Palmerston, whose tenure of power was none too
secure, dared not risk a break that might carry the disaffected into the
ranks of the Opposition.

From this time forward the North rapidly grew in favor in British public
opinion, and its influence upon the Government speedily increased.

Says Lord Charnwood in his recent life of Lincoln: "The battle of
Antietam was followed within five days by an event which made it
impossible for any government of this country to take action unfriendly
to the North." He refers of course to the Emancipation Proclamation,
which was issued on September 23, 1862. Lord Charnwood's remark may
be too dramatic. But there can be no doubt that the Emancipation
Proclamation was the turning-point in Lincoln's foreign policy; and
because of it, his friends in England eventually forced the Government
to play into his hands, and so frustrated Napoleon's scheme for
intervention. Consequently Lincoln was able to maintain the blockade
by means of which the South was strangled. Thus, at bottom, the crucial
matter was Emancipation.

Lincoln's policy with regard to slavery passed through three distinct
stages. As we have seen, he proposed, at first, to pledge the Government
not to interfere with slavery in the States where it then existed. This
was his maximum of compromise. He would not agree to permitting its
extension into new territory. He maintained this position through 1861,
when it was made an accusation against him by the Abolitionists and
contributed to the ebb of his popularity. It also played a great part
in the episode of Fremont. At a crucial moment in Fremont's career, when
his hold upon popularity seemed precarious, he set at naught the
policy of the President and issued an order (August 30, 1861), which
confiscated all property and slaves of those who were in arms against
the United States or actively aiding the enemy, and which created a
"bureau of abolition." Whether Fremont was acting from conviction or
"playing politics" may be left to his biographers. In a most tactful
letter Lincoln asked him to modify the order so as to conform to the
Confiscation Act of Congress; and when Fremont proved obdurate, Lincoln
ordered him to do so. In the outcry against Lincoln when Fremont was at
last removed, the Abolitionists rang the changes on this reversal of his
policy of military abolition.

Another Federal General, Benjamin F. Butler, in the c