THE EMANCIPATOR

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 55, 29 November 1937, Page 5

THE EMANCIPATOR

Portrait Of Lincoln FREEING THE SLAVES The archivist of the United States dusted off the Emancipation Proclamation on its seventy-fifth birthday and placed it on display, said the “Christtian Science Monitor” recently. The proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, by President Lincoln and numbered among the most celebrated of American State Papers, lay buried in the musty files of the State Department until removed to the vaults of the archives building a few months ago. Lincoln’s own account of tho events which prompted him to issue the proclamation was recorded by Frank B. Carpenter, an artist, who made a lifesized painting of the President reading the document to his Cabinet. “It bad got to be midsummer of 1862,” Lincoln told him. “Things (in the Civil War) had gone from bad to worse until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope. “I determined upon the adoption of the Emancipation policy; and without consultation with, or the knowledge of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft.” ,

On the advice of Secretary of State Seward, Lincoln told Mr. Carpenter he put the original draft aside “until the Union had won a decisive victory.” ■‘Finally came the Battle of Antietam,” Mr. Carpenter quoted Lincoln as saying. "The advantage was on our side. I determined to wait no longer.” An intimate picture of Lincoln on the historic night and morning when he decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation came to "The Christian Science Monitor” in the words of the President’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln. The “Monitor” had published an etching of Lincoln entitled ‘Guidance,” portraying Lincoln as divinely led. A letter was received: “Both of your etchings of Abraham Lincoln impressed me, but the one with the sadness removed called to thought an incident in Lincoln’s life.

“It was my privilege to know from the time I was four years old Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln’s son). Because of my great love for Abraham Lincoln he spoke very freely to me of homely incidents, and when I wanted some material on Lincoln in the course of my studies he told me many things among which was the following: “ ‘My mother was very much opposed to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and expressed her views at great length before retiring. My father never retired that night, but paced his study—back and forth—stopping now and then to read a few favourite verses from the Bible or to gaze at the sky. “ ‘ln the morning my mother and I went to his study, my mother inquiring in her quick, sharp way, “Well, what do you intend doing?” “ ‘My father looked up, as to heaven, a great light illumining his face and for the moment removing the careworn lines, replied, “I am a man under orders, I cannot do otherwise.” ’ “Mr. Robert Lincoln commented that there seemed to be a ‘presence’ which silenced further comment from his mother or himself. That day Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. “The above is from my notes, taken as Mr. Robert Todd Lincoln spoke.”