It has been shown again and again, by the words of Lincoln and by the testimony of his friends, that he heartily detested the practice of slavery, and would joyfully have set every bondman free.  Before his nomination for the Presidency—­indeed, from the very beginning of his public life—­he had repeatedly put himself on record as opposed to slavery, but perhaps nowhere more tersely and unequivocally than in these words:  “There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence—­the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to them as the white man.” But his respect for the laws of the land deterred him from measures that might seem of doubtful constitutionality, and he waited patiently until the right hour had struck before he issued the edict of emancipation so eagerly demanded by a large class of earnest and loyal people at the North.  Many of these people, misunderstanding his views and intentions, were very impatient; and their criticisms and expostulations were a constant burden to the sorely tried Executive.

In June of this year (1862) the President was waited on by a deputation of Quakers, or Friends, fifteen or twenty in number, who had been charged by the Yearly Meeting of their association to present a “minute” to the President on the subject of slavery and the duty of immediate emancipation.  The visit of these excellent people was not altogether timely.  Bad news had been received from McClellan’s army on the Peninsula, and Lincoln was harassed with cares and anxieties.  But he gave the deputation a cordial though brief greeting, as he announced that he was ready to hear from the Friends.  In the reading of the minute, it appeared that the document took occasion to remind the President that, years before, he had said, “I believe that this Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free,” and from this was implied a suggestion of his failure to perform his duty as he had then seen it.  Lincoln was decidedly displeased with this criticism; and after the document had been read to the close, he received it from the speaker, then drawing himself up, he said, with unusual severity of manner:  “It is true that on the 17th of June, 1858, I said, ’I believe that this Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free,’ but I said it in connection with other things from which it should not have been separated in an address discussing moral obligations; for this is a case in which the repetition of half a truth, in connection with the remarks just read, produces the effect of a whole falsehood.  What I did say was, ’If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it.  We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to the slavery agitation.  Under the operation