“I am approached with the most opposite opinions expressed on the part of religious men, each of whom is equally certain that he represents the divine will.”

To one of these delegations of ministers, Lincoln gave a response which while homely in its language must have presented to his callers a vivid picture of the burdens that were being carried by the leader of the state: 

“Gentlemen,” he said, “suppose all the property you possess were in gold, and you had placed it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope.  With slow, cautious, steady steps he walks the rope, bearing your all.  Would you shake the cable and keep shouting to him, ’Blondin, stand up a little straighter!  Blondin, stoop a little more; go a little faster; lean more to the south!  Now lean a little more to north!  Would that be your behaviour in such an emergency?  No, you would hold your breath, every one of you, as well as your tongues.  You would keep your hands off until he was safe on the other side.”

Another delegation, which had been urging some months in advance of what Lincoln believed to be the fitting time for the issuing of the Proclamation of Emancipation, called asking that there should be no further delay in the action.  One of the ministers, as he was retiring, turned and said to Lincoln:  “What you have said to us, Mr. President, compels me to say to you in reply that it is a message to you from our Divine Master, through me, commanding you, sir, to open the doors of bondage, that the slave may go free!” Lincoln replied:  “That may be, sir, for I have studied this question by night and by day, for weeks and for months, but if it is, as you say, a message from your Divine Master, is it not odd that the only channel He could send it by was that roundabout route through the wicked city of Chicago?”

Another version of the story omits the reference to Chicago, and makes Lincoln’s words: 

“I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He would reveal it directly to me....  Whatever shall appear to be God’s will, I will do.”

In September, 1862, General Lee carried his army into Maryland, threatening Baltimore and Washington.  It is probable that the purpose of this invasion was more political than military.  The Confederate correspondence shows that Davis was at the time hopeful of securing the intervention of Great Britain and France, and it was natural to assume that the prospects of such intervention would be furthered if it could be shown that the Southern army, instead of being engaged in the defence of its own capital, was actually threatening Washington and was possibly strong enough to advance farther north.