What we said 150 years ago: Lincoln's word has gone forth

[bemildred]

Abraham Lincoln is true to his country and to his antecedents.

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Promptly at the expiration of the one hundred days warning, on the first of January, 1863, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and exclusively as a war measure, he pronounced FOREVER FREE all men held as slaves within the states and districts in rebellion against the Government of the Union.

These men lately held as slaves may continue to be held by their masters and compelled to labor for a time as before, just as the man who has stolen your horse may use it until you recover it; but by the law of the land they are now and forever free, and the faith and power of the Republic is pledged to rescue them from an unlawful bondage.

We expect no great result to follow instantaneously upon the publication of the President's order, but we do anticipate that it will, in due season, bear fruits of lasting beneficence.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/what-we-said-years-ago-lincoln-s-word-has-gone/article_a96f092a-575f-11e2-b7c9-001a4bcf887a.html

[rug]

1. "exclusively as a war measure"

Meanwhile, peolpe in non-seceding border states remained property.