had been hoped that the rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure.  It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be presented.  It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and doubtful days.  Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to take another review.  The rebel borders are pressed still farther back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country dominated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical communication between them.  Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their respective States.  Of those States not included in the emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery into new Territories, dispute now only as to the best mode of removing it within their own limits.

Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full 100,000 are now in the United States military service, about one-half of which number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many white men.  So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any.  No servile insurrection or tendency to violence or cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and arming the blacks.  These measures have been much discussed in foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion, the tone of public sentiment there is much improved.  At home the same measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and denounced, and the annual elections following are highly encouraging to those whose official duty it is to bear the country through this great trial.  Thus we have the new reckoning.  The crisis which threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past.

Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a resumption of the national authority within the States wherein that authority has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted.  On examination of this proclamation it will appear, as is believed, that nothing will be attempted beyond what is amply justified by the Constitution.  True, the form of an oath is given, but no man is coerced to take it.  The man is promised a pardon only in case he voluntarily takes the oath.  The Constitution authorizes the Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute discretion, and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is fully established by judicial and other authorities.