Letter from General Benjamin F. Butler

May 27, 1861

Background: General Benjamin F. Butler, commander at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, wrote this letter to his superiors, including General-in-Chief Winfield Scott. He asks what to do about slaves who had escaped to the Union Army camp.

Sir

Since I wrote my last dispatch the question in regard to slave property is becoming one of very serious magnitude. The inhabitants of Virginia are using their negroes in the batteries, and are preparing to send the women and children South. The escapes from them are very numerous, and a squad has come in this morning to my pickets bringing their women and children. Of course these cannot be dealt with upon the Theory on which I designed to treat the services of able bodied men and women who might come within my lines and of which I gave you a detailed account in my last dispatch. I am in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of property. Up to this time I have had come within my lines men and women and their children---entire families---each family belonging to the same owner. I have therefore determined to employ, as I can do very profitably, the able-bodied persons in the party, issuing proper food for the support of all, and charging against their services the expense of care and sustenance of the non-laborers, keeping a strict and accurate account as well of the services as of the expenditure having the worth of the services and the cost of the expenditure determined by a board of Survey hereafter to be detailed. I know of no other manner in which to dispose of this subject and the questions connected therewith. As a matter of property to the insurgents it will be of very great moment, the number that I now have amounting as I am informed to what in good times would be of the value of sixty thousand dollars. Twelve of these negroes I am informed have escaped from the erection of the batteries on Sewall's point which this morning fired upon my expedition as it passed by out of range. As a means of offence therefore in the enemy's hands these negroes when able bodied are of the last importance. Without them the batteries could not have been erected at least for many weeks As a military question it would seem to be a measure of necessity to deprive their masters of their services How can this be done? As a political question and a question of humanity can I receive the services of a Father and a Mother and not take the children? Of the humanitarian aspect I have no doubt. Of the political one I have no right to judge. I therefore submit all this to your better judgement, and as these questions have a political aspect, I have ventured---and I trust I am not wrong in so doing---to duplicate the parts of my dispatch relating to this subject and forward them to the Secretary of War.

Benj. F. Butler

Questions 1. What, according to Butler, had recently prompted increasing numbers of slaves to flee to Union lines?

2. Why does Butler consider the issue of runaway slaves as both a "humanitarian" and "political" issue?" The Civil War as an Opportunity to Abolish Slavery and Destroy the Slave Power Author: John Jay III Date:1861

In July 1861, Congress adopted a resolution by a vote of 117 to 2 in the House and 30 to 5 in the Senate that read: "This war is not waged...for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the established institutions of those States, but to maintain the States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war should cease." Fearful of alienating the slave states that remained in the Union--Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri--or of antagonizing Northerners who would support anti-war Democrats if the conflict were transformed into a war to abolish slavery, Lincoln felt that he had to proceed cautiously. Nevertheless, opponents of slavery, like the abolitionist attorney John Jay (1817-1894), the author of this letter and grandson of the Revolutionary War patriot, regarded the war as a providential opportunity to destroy slavery and the slave power.

We have an agency at work for the abolition of slavery in the pending war more powerful than all the Conventions we could assemble. Every battle fought will teach our soldiers & the nation at large that slavery is the great cause of the war, that it is slavery which has brutalized & barbarized the South & that slavery must be abolished as our army advances as a military necessity.... I look presently see the entire north...demanding the abolition of slavery not from their Christian regard for the rights of the slave but from motives that partake rather of self-interest--& from a conviction induced only by arguments and by facts that it is slavery alone that has reduced us to our present state.

The continuance of the war, with the unanimous and hearty approval of the whole north...that I would not run the risk of weakening it by an active antislavery movement. Let us polish our tones in patience--for I think I have already seen the beginning of the end.

Frederick Douglass “The Slaveholders’ Rebellion” Himrod’s, New York July 04, 1862

There is plausibility in the argument that we cannot reach slavery until we have suppressed the rebellion. Yet it is far more true to say that we cannot reach the rebellion until we have suppressed slavery. For slavery is the life of the rebellion. Let the loyal army but inscribe upon its banner, Emancipation and protection to all who will rally under it, and no power could prevent a stampede from slavery, such as the world has not witnessed since the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea. I am convinced that this rebellion and slavery are twin monsters, and that they must fall or flourish together, and that all attempts at upholding one while putting down the other, will be followed by continued trains of darkening calamities, such as make this anniversary of our national Independence, a day of mourning instead of a day of transcendent joy and gladness. A Supporter of the Confederacy Reflects on the Emancipation Proclamation Author: Mansfield Lovell Date: 1862

In a letter to his son, Confederate Major General Mansfield Lovell (1822-1884) predicts that Lincoln's emancipation proclamation "will produce dissensions and troubles at the North and...thus indirectly benefit our Cause." Lovell, a West Point graduate who had served in the Mexican War, had unsuccessfully defended against a Union fleet in April 1862.

Even before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair (1813-1883), a former Democrat from Maryland, had warned the President that this decision might stimulate antiwar protests among northern Democrats and cost the administration the fall 1862 elections. In fact, Peace Democrats did protest against the proclamation and Lincoln's assumption of powers not specifically granted by the Constitution. Among the "abuses" they denounced were his unilateral decision to call out the militia to suppress the "insurrection," impose a blockade of southern ports, expand the army beyond the limits set by law, spend federal funds without prior congressional authorization, and suspend the writ of habeas corpus (the right of persons under arrest to have their case heard in court). The Lincoln administration imprisoned about 13,000 people without trial during the war, and shut Democratic newspapers in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago for varying amounts of time.

The Democrats failed to gain control of the House of Representatives in the Fall 1862 election, in part because the preliminary emancipation proclamation gave a higher moral purpose to the northern cause.

I think Lincoln's proclamation will produce dissensions and trouble at the North, and will thus indirectly benefit our Cause. The Democratic party there is not willing to go headlong into any abolition war. And the elections will show that Lincoln's policy will be condemned. Give my best love to your little brother and sister and write to me as often as you wish. It will help to improve you in writing in expressing your thoughts. Be a good boy and take care of your beautiful mother while I am gone.

The Emancipation Proclamation President issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. Excerpt from Emancipation Proclamation

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the , shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass's sons, Charles and Lewis, lived with him in Old Anacostia in Washington, DC, but traveled to Massachusetts to join the 54th Infantry in April 1863. According to his Company Descriptive Book, which is part of his compiled service record, Charles transferred to the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry to become its 1st sergeant. Lewis was the sergeant major of the 54th and was wounded in the assault on Fort Wagner

Thirteenth Amendment Resolution Author: Congress of the United States Date:1864

The Emancipation Proclamation freed only those slaves in states still at war. As a wartime order, it could subsequently be reversed by presidential degree or congressional legislation. The permanent emancipation of all slaves therefore required a constitutional amendment.

In April 1864, the Senate passed the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. Opposition from Democratic Representatives prevented the amendment from receiving the required two-thirds majority. If McClellan and the Democrats had won the election of 1864, as Lincoln and most Northerners expected in the summer, the amendment would almost certainly have been defeated and slave emancipation repudiated as a war aim. Only after Lincoln was reelected did Congress approve the amendment. Ratification by the states was completed in December 1865.

Article XIII. Sec. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the part shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Source: Gilder Lehrman Institute