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By Root 1841 0

Hamlin family lore, he read a draft of such a document to his vice president as early as mid-June 1862 (an unlikely story, given that when Lincoln finally made his decision public that fall, Hamlin seemed surprised). Owen Lovejoy also claimed to have been told about it in advance. On July 1, 1862, on the other hand, Orville H. Browning recorded in his diary that Lincoln had read to him a draft paper about how to conduct the war “in its relations to slavery.” Rather than containing any new departures, this document reiterated existing policy. No fugitives who escaped during the war were to be returned to slavery; no blacks would be armed; and Congress had “no power over slavery in the states.” According to Browning, Lincoln even stated that whatever remained of slavery once the war ended would “be left to the exclusive control of the states where it may exist.” Three days later, as noted earlier, Lincoln rebuffed Charles Sumner’s plea for the “reconsecration” of Independence Day “by a decree of emancipation.”26

On July 7, Lincoln traveled to Harrison’s Landing on the James River to confer with General McClellan, commander of the Union’s main eastern army. McClellan presented him with a letter insisting that the war must be conducted “upon the highest principles known to Christian Civilization.” Violation of civilian property rights and the “forcible abolition of slavery,” he insisted, were beneath the dignity of civilized armies. But the visit seems to have led Lincoln to the opposite conclusion from what McClellan intended. He departed convinced that the war could not possibly be won in this manner, and that what would come to be called “hard war”—war not simply of army against army but of society against society—had become necessary. This meant abandoning previous efforts to shield southern civilians from the consequences of secession.27

Lincoln returned to Washington on July 10, as Congress completed work on the Second Confiscation Act, with its emancipation provisions. Two days later, Lincoln met with the border-state delegation to press his plan for gradual abolition. The following day, July 13, while sharing a carriage with Secretaries Welles and Seward en route to the funeral of Stanton’s infant son, Lincoln for the first time broached the subject of emancipation by presidential proclamation. Welles later recollected that Lincoln “dwelt earnestly on the gravity” of the subject, saying that “it was a military necessity absolutely essential for the salvation of the Union.” Two factors, Welles believed, were uppermost in Lincoln’s mind: lack of military success, which had convinced him that the nation could no longer pursue a “forbearing policy” toward Confederates, and the failure of his border initiative. Lincoln had “concluded that emancipation in rebel areas must precede that in the border, not the other way around.” In a letter to his wife that day, Welles wondered why he had been chosen to hear the momentous announcement. “I scarcely know what to make of it,” he wrote.28

On July 21, 1862, four days after he signed the Second Confiscation Act and the Militia Act, Lincoln informed the cabinet that he had resolved on decisive new measures. He presented the drafts of four new orders. The first gave field commanders the authority to live off the land in hostile territory (that is, to appropriate civilian property). The others authorized the use of blacks as military laborers; required the army to keep records of confiscated property, including slaves, so loyal owners could receive compensation; and envisioned “the colonization of negroes in some tropical territory.” The first three, which essentially executed provisions of the confiscation and militia acts, received the cabinet’s unanimous approval. The colonization proposal garnered little support and was, for the moment, dropped. The cabinet also discussed another request from General Hunter to enlist black soldiers. Cabinet members were favorably disposed, but Lincoln “expressed himself as averse to arming negroes.”29

The next day, July 22, the discussion continued.