Before the war was four months old, the inevitable subject of dispute between Northern parties had begun to trouble Lincoln.  As soon as a Northern force set foot on Southern soil slaves were apt to escape to it, and the question arose, what should the Northern general do with them, for he was not there to make war on the private property of Southern citizens.  General Butler—­a newspaper character of some fame or notoriety throughout the war—­commanded at Fort Monroe, a point on the coast of Virginia which was always held by the North.  He learnt that the slaves who fled to him had been employed on making entrenchments for the Southern troops, so he adopted a view, which took the fancy of the North, that they were “contraband of war,” and should be kept from their owners.  The circumstances in which slaves could thus escape varied so much that great discretion must be left to the general on the spot, and the practice of generals varied.  Lincoln was well content to leave the matter so.  Congress, however, passed an Act by which private property could be confiscated, if used in aid of the “insurrection” but not otherwise, and slaves were similarly dealt with.  This moderate provision as to slaves met with a certain amount of opposition; it raised an alarming question in slave States like Missouri that had not seceded.  Lincoln himself seems to have been averse to any legislation on the subject.  He had deliberately concentrated his mind, or, as his critics would have said, narrowed it down to the sole question of maintaining the Union, and was resolved to treat all other questions as subordinate to this.

Shortly after, there reappeared upon the political scene a leader with what might seem a more sympathetic outlook.  This was Fremont, Lincoln’s predecessor as the Republican candidate for the Presidency.  Fremont was one of those men who make brilliant and romantic figures in their earlier career, and later appear to have lost all solid qualities.  It must be recalled that, though scarcely a professional soldier (for he had held a commission, but served only in the Ordnance Survey) he had conducted a great exploring expedition, had seen fighting as a free-lance in California, and, it is claimed, had with his handful of men done much to win that great State from Mexico.  Add to this that he, a Southerner by birth, was known among the leaders who had made California a free State, and it is plain how appropriate it must have seemed when he was set to command the Western Department, which for the moment meant Missouri.  Here by want of competence, and, which was more surprising, lethargy he had made a present of some successes to a Southern invading force, and had sacrificed the promising life of General Lyon.  Lincoln, loath to remove him, had made a good effort at helping him out by tactfully persuading a more experienced general to serve as a subordinate on his staff.  At the end of August Fremont suddenly issued a proclamation