roperty used or usable for purposes of war. To confiscate enemy
property which may be of military use was a practice as old as war
itself. The same principle which justified the North in destroying a
Southern cotton crop or tearing up the Southern railways justified the
emancipation of Negroes within the bounds of the Southern Confederacy.
In consonance with this principle Lincoln issued on September 22nd a
proclamation declaring slaves free as from January 1, 1863, in such
districts as the President should on that date specify as being in
rebellion against the Federal Government. Thus a chance was deliberately
left open for any State, or part of a State, to save its slaves by
submission. At the same time Lincoln renewed the strenuous efforts which
he had already made more than once to induce the Slave States which
remained in the Union to consent voluntarily to some scheme of gradual
and compensated emancipation.

One effect of the Emancipation Proclamation upon which Lincoln had
calculated was the approval of the civilized world and especially of
England. This was at that moment of the more importance because the
growing tendency of Englishmen to sympathize with the South, which was
largely the product of Jackson's daring and picturesque exploits, had
already produced a series of incidents which nearly involved the two
nations in war. The chief of these was the matter of the _Alabama_. This
cruiser was built and fitted up in the dockyards of Liverpool by the
British firm of Laird. She was intended, as the contractors of course
knew, for the service of the Confederacy, and, when completed, she took
to the sea under pretext of a trial trip, in spite of the protests of
the representative of the American Republic. The order to detain her
arrived too late, and she reached a Southern port, whence she issued to
become a terror to the commerce of the United States. That the fitting
up of such a vessel, if carried out with the complicity of the
Government, was a gross breach of neutrality is unquestionable. That
the Government of Lord Russell connived at the escape of the _Alabama_,
well knowing her purpose and character, though generally believed in
America at the time, is most unlikely. That the truth was known to the
authorities at Liverpool, where Southern sympathies were especially
strong, is on the other hand almost certain, and these authorities must
be held mainly responsible for misleading the Government and so
preven