Among the interesting pictures in the Capitol is Frank B. Carpenter's picture, "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862." Mr. Lincoln was accustomed to speak of the act which this picture represents as the central act of his administration. Historians have recorded it the leading event of the nineteenth century.
It changed the policy of the war, and was received by the army and the people as a necessary war measure. According to Mr. Carpenter, he takes the moment when Mr. Lincoln has just said: "Gentlemen, I now propose to issue this Emancipation Proclamation."
Montgomery Blair said: "If you do, Mr. President, we shall lose the fall elections." To this no one offered a reply. Mr. Seward, who sits in front of the table, said: "Mr. President, should we not wait for a more decisive victory, so that the rebels may know we are able to enforce the Proclamation?" Mr. Lincoln leaned forward and said, in a low voice: "I promised my God, if Lee were driven back from Maryland, to issue the Proclamation." Mr. Seward said: "Mr. President, I withdraw every objection." Chase, who stands back of the President in the picture, and who was not always in sympathy with Mr. Lincoln, laid his hand affectionately on Mr. Lincoln's shoulder, to show the President that in this matter they were in perfect accord.
THE FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
The Proclamation came just after the battle of Antietam, which was far from being a decisive victory. The Proclamation set forth that, unless rebellion ceased by January 1, 1863, the slaves at that time would be declared free. It was a case of "man's extremity is God's opportunity."
Another picture which well merits a full description (which we have not space to give) is W. H. Powell's spirited picture, "The Battle of Lake Erie, September 13, 1813." It represents Commodore Perry transferring his colors from the disabled flagship Lawrence to the Niagara in the midst of a fire from the enemy. Perry deserved all the glory he so richly won.
Mary Clemmer Ames thus beautifully describes that great picture, "Westward the Star of the Empire Takes its Way." The picture is in the stairway of the south wing:
"At the first glance it presents a scene of inextricable confusion. It is an emigrant train caught and tangled in one of the highest passes of the Rocky Mountains. Far backward spread the eastern plains, far onward stretches the Beulah of promise, fading at last in the far horizon. The great wagons struggling upward, tumbling downward from mountain precipice into mountain gorge, hold under their shaking covers every type of westward moving human life. Here is the mother sitting in the wagon front, her blue eyes gazing outward, wistfully and far, the baby lying on her lap; one wants to touch the baby's head, it looks so alive and tender and shelterless in all that dust and turmoil of travel. A man on horseback carries his wife, her head upon his shoulder. Who that has ever seen it will forget her sick look and the mute appeal in the suffering eyes? Here is the bold hunter with his raccoon cap, the pioneer boy on horseback, a coffeepot and cup dangling at his saddle, and oxen—such oxen! it seems as if their friendly noses must touch us; they seem to be feeling out for our hand as we pass up the gallery. Here is the young man, the old man, and far aloft stands the advance-guard fastening on the highest and farthest pinnacle the flag of the United States.