1861-s] Progress of the Abolition movement. 597 but of free mulattos, was thus set forth in a proclamation of outlawry by the Confederate President : "African slaves have not only been incited to insurrection by every licence and encouragement, but numbers of them have actually been armed for a servile war a war in its nature far exceeding the horrors and most merciless atrocities of savages." In a similar temper Jefferson Davis, in his annual message, commented upon President Lincoln's final proclamation of emancipation. " Our own detestation of those who have attempted the most execrable measure recorded in the history of guilty man is tempered by profound contempt for the impotent rage which it discloses " ; and he threatened with dire punishment officers executing the decree. It is worthy of historical record that in the tremendous change which transferred four millions of Africans from bondage to freedom, none of these dreadful consequences happened. The Southern people had for half a century groaned and trembled under the nightmare of a general slave insurrection; and it was not unnatural that the Civil War should double this dread. But the suffering and destruction inseparable from war were not aggravated by any inhuman excesses on the part of the freed people, armed or unarmed. The only serious violation of the laws of war was committed by white Confederate soldiers at the massacre of Fort Pillow. This caused President Lincoln to issue an order of retaliation, but his humane and forgiving spirit permitted it to lapse. The action of Lincoln in freeing the United States from the institution of African slavery falls naturally into two periods. The first extends from the re-affirmation, in his inaugural address, of the doctrines of the Chicago platform to the final emancipation proclamation; the second from that military decree, which annulled the proprietary rights of rebellious masters, to the Xlllth Amendment obliterating slavery from the national jurisdiction. The edict of freedom left the " institution " untouched in a few territorial fragments of Louisiana and Virginia, and in the loyal States of Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. But an aggressive public spirit of reform had been generated during the first period, which now added its impulse to the stern decree of the final proclamation. The war had everywhere rudely disturbed the relation of master and slave, wakening the nation from the old life to fresher aspirations. The advantages of the Free States in intellectual energy and material pros- perity were strongly brought into light by the trying struggle. The discussion of emancipation merged gradually into an acceptance of the idea, and a hope of its fulfilment. Considerable portions of the Secessionist States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee came and remained under control of the Unionist armies ; and the loyal element of the population, repressed under the terrorism of Secession, saw its best hope for ascendancy and domination, and the firm adherence of CH. XVIII.
