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"THE BOUNDLESS FIELDOF ABSOLUTISM?"
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292 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great republic-for the principle it lives by, and keeps alive-for man's vast future,-thanks to all. Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost. And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it. Still let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result. Yours very truly "THE BOUNDLESS FIELD OF ABSOLUTISM?" A. LINCOLN. Draft Letter to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase [SEPTEMBER 2, 1863] The eight-month-old Emancipation Proclamation applied only to states in rebellion, exempting border slave states and even areas ofthe Confederacy returned to Union control by January 1, 1863. In this letter, Lincoln defends these restrictions, arguing that to have gone further would have clearly exceeded his constitutional authority. Not until the following summer was Lincoln preparedpublicly to support a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery everywhere. Lincoln and Liberty, 1862-1863 293 Hon. S. P. Chase. Executive Mansion, Washington, September 2. 1863. My dear Sir: Knowing your great anxiety that the emancipation proclamation shall now be applied to certain parts of Virginia and Louisiana which were exempted from it last January, I state briefly what appear to me to be difficulties in the way of such a step. The original proclamation has no constitutional or legal justification, except as a military measure. The exemptions were made because the military necessity did not apply to the exempted localities. Nor does that necessity apply to them now any more than it did then. If I take the step must I not do so, without the argument of military necessity, and so, without any argument, except the one that I think the measure politically expedient, and morally right? Would I not thus give up all footing upon constitution or law? Would I not thus be in the boundless field of absolutism? Could this pass unnoticed, or unresisted? Could it fail to be perceived that without any further stretch, I might do the same in Delaware, Maryland , Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri; and even change any law in any state? Would not many of our own friends shrink away appalled? Would it not lose us the elections, and with them, the very cause we seek to advance? "HAS THE MANHOOD OF OUR RACE RUN OUT?" From an Opinion on the Draft [SEPTEMBER 14, 1863?] Mobs in New York City greeted the beginning ofconscription by rampaging through the streets, settingfire to a Negro orphanage, and stoning the Tribune. Then some state andfederal courts began acting to interfere with the draft on legal grounds. Lincoln prepared this response to the crisis, ...