“Pardon me, you will do it before next October. You will do it because the pressure of an advanced public opinion will force you to do it, and because God Almighty will interpose checks and defeats to our arms in order that we of the North may, in the fermentation of ideas, throw off this foul scum, redolent of the bottomless pit, which apathy or sympathy in regard to slavery engenders. Yes, you will give us an emancipation proclamation, and then you will give us permission to raise black regiments, and then, after being pricked, and urged, and pricked again, by public opinion, you will offset the Rebel threats of massacre by issuing a war bulletin declaring that the United States will protect her fighting men of whatever color, and that there must be life for life for every black soldier killed in violation of the laws of war.”
“But are you a prophet, Mr. Vance?”
“It requires no gift of prophecy, Mr. President, to foretell these things. It needs but full faith in the operation of Divine laws to anticipate all that I have prefigured. You refuse now to let me raise a black regiment. In less than ten months you will give me a carte blanche to enlist as many negroes as I can for the war.”
“Perhaps,—but I don’t see my way clear to do it yet.”
“A great man,” said Vance, “ought to lead and fashion public opinion in stupendous emergencies like this,—ought to throw himself boldly on some great principle having its root in eternal justice,—ought to grapple it, cling to it, stake everything upon it, and make everything give way to it.”
“But I am not a great man, Mr. Vance,” said the President, with unaffected naïveté.
“I believe your intentions are good and great, Mr. President,” was the reply; “for what you supremely desire is, to do your duty.”
“Yes, I claim that much. Thank you.”
“Well, your duty is to take the most energetic measures for conquering a peace. Under the Constitution, the war power is committed to your hands. That power is not defined by the Constitution, for it is imprescriptible; regulated by international usage. That usage authorizes you to free the slaves of an enemy. Why not do it?”
“Would not a proclamation of emancipation from Abraham Lincoln be much like the Pope’s bull against the comet?”