In all fairness it should be said that the conduct of the North contributed to the irritation between the two countries.  Seward, the Secretary of State, was vindictive in dealing with Great Britain; had it not been for the moderation of Lincoln, he would have pursued a course verging in the direction of open war.  The New York and Boston papers were severe in their attacks on England.  Words were, on one occasion at least, accompanied by an act savoring of open hostility.  In November, 1861, Captain Wilkes, commanding a union vessel, overhauled the British steamer Trent, and carried off by force two Confederate agents, Mason and Slidell, sent by President Davis to represent the Confederacy at London and Paris respectively.  This was a clear violation of the right of merchant vessels to be immune from search and impressment; and, in answer to the demand of Great Britain for the release of the two men, the United States conceded that it was in the wrong.  It surrendered the two Confederate agents to a British vessel for safe conduct abroad, and made appropriate apologies.

=Emancipation.=—­Among the extreme war measures adopted by the Northern government must be counted the emancipation of the slaves in the states in arms against the union.  This step was early and repeatedly suggested to Lincoln by the abolitionists; but was steadily put aside.  He knew that the abolitionists were a mere handful, that emancipation might drive the border states into secession, and that the Northern soldiers had enlisted to save the union.  Moreover, he had before him a solemn resolution passed by Congress on July 22, 1861, declaring the sole purpose of the war to be the salvation of the union and disavowing any intention of interfering with slavery.

The federal government, though pledged to the preservation of slavery, soon found itself beaten back upon its course and out upon a new tack.  Before a year had elapsed, namely on April 10, 1862, Congress resolved that financial aid should be given to any state that might adopt gradual emancipation.  Six days later it abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.  Two short months elapsed.  On June 19, 1862, it swept slavery forever from the territories of the United States.  Chief Justice Taney still lived, the Dred Scott decision stood as written in the book, but the Constitution had been re-read in the light of the Civil War.  The drift of public sentiment in the North was being revealed.

While these measures were pending in Congress, Lincoln was slowly making up his mind.  By July of that year he had come to his great decision.  Near the end of that month he read to his cabinet the draft of a proclamation of emancipation; but he laid it aside until a military achievement would make it something more than an idle gesture.  In September, the severe check administered to Lee at Antietam seemed to offer the golden opportunity.  On the 22d, the immortal document was given to the world announcing