ourse of 1861, also
raised the issue, though not in the bold fashion of Fremont. Runaway
slaves came to his camp on the Virginia coast, and he refused to
surrender them to the owners. He took the ground that, as they had
probably been used in building Confederate fortifications, they might be
considered contraband of war. He was sustained by Congress, which passed
what is commonly called the First Confiscation Act providing that slaves
used by Confederate armies in military labor should, if captured, be
"forfeited"--which of course meant that they should be set free. But
this did not settle what should be done with runaways whose masters,
though residents of seceded States, were loyal to the Union. The War
Department decided that they should be held until the end of the war,
when probably there would be made "just compensation to loyal masters."

This first stage of Lincoln's policy rested upon the hope that the Union
might be restored without prolonged war. He abandoned this hope about
the end of the year. Thereupon, his policy entered its second stage. In
the spring of 1862 he formulated a plan for gradual emancipation with
compensation. The slaves of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and
the District of Columbia were to be purchased at the rate of $400 each,
thus involving a total expenditure of $173,000,000. Although Congress
adopted the joint resolution recommended by the President, the "border
States" would not accept the plan. But Congress, by virtue of its
plenary power, freed the slaves by purchase in the District of Columbia,
and prohibited slavery in all the territories of the United States.

During the second stage of his policy Lincoln again had to reverse the
action of an unruly general. The Federal forces operating from their
base at Port Royal had occupied a considerable portion of the Carolina
coast. General Hunter issued an order freeing all the slaves in South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In countermanding the order, Lincoln
made another futile appeal to the people of the border States to adopt
some plan of compensated emancipation.

"I do not argue," he said; "I beseech you to make arguments for
yourselves. You cannot, if you would be blind to the signs of the times.
I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it
may be, far above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes
common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It
acts not the Pha