And the Executive will in due time recommend that all the citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective States and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

     In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
     seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

     By the President:  ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

     WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Lincoln’s own account of this proclamation, and of the steps that led to it, is given as reported by Mr. F.B.  Carpenter.  “It had,” said Lincoln, “got to be midsummer, 1862.  Things had gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we must change our tactics and play our last card, or lose the game.  I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy; and, without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject.  This was the last of July, or the first part of the month of August, 1862.  This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon a Saturday.  All were present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster general, who was absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently.  I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had called them together, not to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before them; suggestions as to which would be in order, after they had heard it read.  Mr. Lovejoy was in error when he informed you that it excited no comment, excepting on the part of Secretary Seward.  Various suggestions were offered.  Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks.  Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy, on the ground that it would cost the administration the fall elections.  Nothing, however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke.  He said in substance:  ’Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture.  The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step.  It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help; the government