North
President Lincoln today rescinded the order issued by Maj. General David Hunter that emancipated all slaves in the states of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. The order, known as General Order No. 11, was issued by Major General Hunter on May 9 from his headquarters in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This paper reported on that order immediately after it was issued.
General Hunter's order follows a similar effort by Gen. John C. Frémont, nine months earlier, in August 1861. Fremont was relieved of his command by Mr. Lincoln for insubordination. Ironically, Hunter served as Fremont's interim replacement.
The difference between then and now is nine months - nine months more of an increasingly bloody war, nine months more of a restless Republican party and northern abolitionists, nine months more of slaves fleeing the south by the thousands, each with a more horrific story to tell than those that came before. Additionally, General Hunter had befriended Mr. Lincoln before his inauguration and was thereafter invited to ride the train with him from Springfield to Washington DC. Hunter's abolitionist view was no secret to Lincoln, Secretary of War Stanton and other key Republican leaders.
Lastly, General Hunter is in dire need of soldiers and laborers for his isolated Department of the South. Charged with the responsibility of maintaining the Union Army’s tenuous toehold in coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, essential to maintaining the northern blockade of southern Atlantic ports, General Hunter has received precious little help and even less attention from Washington DC. On April 3, General Hunter communicated his need for more troops and supplies to Secretary Stanton and even mentioned the possibility of utilizing local slaves.
When his forces captured Fort Pulaski which guards the entrance of the harbor of Savannah, Georgia, General Hunter issed Order No. 7, which freed the slaves taken in the operation to capture the fort. When Hunter heard nothing from President Lincoln or the War Department, he then issued General Order No. 11, emancipating all slaves in his command.
This time, his order has not gone unnoticed. The immediate, negative reaction by leaders of the border states appears to have convinced the President that this is not the time for such bold action. In fact, for some time, the President has been trying to get the border states to accept his March 1862 plan for voluntary, gradual, and compensated emancipation. Abolitionist Republicans have also been pushing for a new confiscation law in Congress that would formally free the slaves of rebel owners subject to the First Confiscation Act, introduced in August 1861. The unfavorable public reaction to that bill adds to the general uncertainty that the border states, or even the majority of northerners, are ready for unconditional emancipation.
In the wake of the Supreme Court's 1857′s Dred Scott decision, some have even questioned whether Congress had the constitutional authority to pass legislation freeing slaves outside the District of Columbia.
All of these factors appear to have compelled Mr. Lincoln to rescind the order by Proclamation that includes a disavowel of any knowledge by the President or the leadership in Washington DC of General Hunter's actions.
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, proclaim and declare, that the government of the United States, had no knowledge, information, or belief, of an intention on the part of General Hunter to issue such a proclamation; nor has it yet, any authentic information that the document is genuine– And further, that neither General Hunter, nor any other commander, or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States, to make proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free; and that the supposed proclamation, now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects such declaration.
On the sixth day of March last, by a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolution to be substantially as follows:
Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.
The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and people most immediately interested in the subject matter. To the people of those States I now earnestly appeal– I do not argue, I beseech you to make the arguments for yourselves– You can not 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 partizan politics. This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any– It acts not the pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, in all past time, as, in the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. - Abraham Lincoln
