. . ."
I advanced a step further in December, as will be seen from the
extracts from my speech on Emancipation:
"I say, then, it is a necessity that this war be closed speedily. By
blockade it cannot be; by battle it may be; but we risk the result upon
the uncertainty whether the great general of this continent is with
them or with us. I come, then, to emancipation. Not first,--although
I shall not hesitate to say, before I close, that as a matter of
justice to the slave, there should be emancipation,--but not first do I
ask my countrymen to proclaim emancipation to the slaves in justice to
them, but as a matter of necessity to ourselves; for, unless it be by
accident, we are not to come out of this contest as one nation, except
by emancipation. And first, emancipation in South Carolina. Not
confiscation of the property of rebels; that is inadequate longer to
meet the emergency. It might have done in March or April or May, or
possibly in July; but, in December, or January of the coming year,
confiscation of the property of the rebels is inadequate to meet the
exigency in which the country is placed. You must, if you do anything,
proclaim at the head of the armies of the republic, on the soil of
South Carolina, FREEDOM,--and then enforce the proclamation as far and
fast as you have an opportunity; and you will have opportunity more
speedily then than you will if you attempt to invade South Carolina
without emancipating her slaves.
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