[Sidenote:  The contrabands.]

407.  Contrabands of War.—­he war had scarcely begun before slaves escaped into the Union lines.  One day a Confederate officer came to Fortress Monroe and demanded his runaway slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act (p. 281).  General Butler refused to give them up on the ground that they were “contraband of war.”  By that phrase he meant that their restoration would be illegal as their services would be useful to the enemy.  President Lincoln approved this decision of General Butler, and escaping slaves soon came to be called “Contrabands.”

[Illustration:  A WAR-TIME ENVELOPE.]

[Sidenote:  Abolition with compensation.]

408.  First Steps toward Emancipation, 1862.—­Lincoln and the Republican party thought that Congress could not interfere with slavery in the states.  It might, however, buy slaves and set them free or help the states to do this.  So Congress passed a law offering aid to any state which should abolish slavery within its borders.  Congress itself abolished slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation to the owners.  It abolished slavery in the territories without compensation.  Lincoln had gladly helped to make these laws.  Moreover, by August, 1862, he had made up his mind that to free the slaves in the seceded states would help “to save the Union” and would therefore be right as a “war measure.”  For every negro taken away from forced labor would weaken the producing power of the South and so make the conquest of the South easier.

[Sidenote:  Lincoln’s warning, September, 1862.]

[Sidenote:  Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863. Higginson, 304-305; Source-Book, 315-318, 327-329.]

409.  The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863.—­On September 23, 1862, Lincoln issued a proclamation stating that on the first day of the new year he would declare free all slaves in any portion of the United States then in rebellion.  On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  This proclamation could be enforced only in those portions of the seceded states which were held by the Union armies.  It did not free slaves in loyal states and did not abolish the institution of slavery anywhere.  Slavery was abolished by the states of West Virginia, Missouri, and Maryland between 1862 and 1864.  Finally, in 1865, it was abolished throughout the United States by the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment (p. 361).

[Sidenote:  Northern friends of secession.]

[Sidenote:  Suspension of habeas corpus.]

410.  Northern Opposition to the War.—­Many persons in the North thought that the Southerners had a perfect right to secede if they wished.  Some of these persons sympathized so strongly with the Southerners that they gave them important information and did all they could to prevent the success of the Union forces.  It was hard to prove anything against these Southern sympathizers, but it was dangerous to