The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES.

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coin gave it to me, on the occasion of our first interview, and written
dbwn by myself soon afterward:"It had got to be," said he, " midsummer, 1862. Things had
gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end
of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we
had about played our last card, and must change our tactics or lose
the game! I now determined upon the adoption of the Emancipation
policy; and, without consultation with, or the knowledre of the
Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the Proclamation; and, after
much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject.
This was the last of July, or the first part of the month of August,
1862." (The exact date he did not remember.) " This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon a Saturday. All were present, excepting Mr, Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet
that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together
to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation
before them; suggestions as to which would be in order, after they
had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy," said he, " was it error when he
informed you that it excited no commnent, excepting on the part of
Secretary Seward. Various suggestions were offered. Secretary
Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the
blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy, on the
ground that it would cost the Administration the fall elections.
Nothing, however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated
and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. Said he:' Mr. President, I approve of the Proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind,
consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great, that I fear the
effect of so important a step, It may be viewed as the last measure
of an exhausted Government-a cry for help; the Government
stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching
forth her hands to the Government.' His idea," said the President,
"was, that it would be considered our last shriek on the retreat."
(This was his precise expression.) "'Now,' continued Mr. Seward,
'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its
issue until you can give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest
disasters of the war 1"' Said Mr. Lincoln:-" The wisdom of the view
of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It was an
aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had