* This was indeed going
to the extreme of liberality, but Mr. Lincoln remembered that
notwithstanding all their offenses the rebels were American
citizens, members of the same nation and brothers of the same
blood. He remembered, too, that the object of the war, equally
with peace and freedom, was to preserve friendship and to
continue the Union. Filled with such thoughts and purposes he
spent the day after his return in drawing up a new proposal
designed as a peace offering to the States in rebellion. On the
evening of February 5 he read this to his cabinet. It offered the
southern States $400,000,000 or a sum equal to the cost of war
for two hundred days, on condition that all fighting cease by the
first of April, 1865. He proved more liberal than any of his
advisers; and with the words, "You are all against me," sadly
uttered, the President folded up the paper, and ended the
discussion.
* Mr. Lincoln had freed the slaves two years before as a military
necessity, and as such it had been accepted by all. Yet a
question might arise, when the war ended, as to whether this act
of his had been lawful. He was therefore very anxious to have
freedom find a place in the Constitution of the United States.
This could only be done by an amendment to the Constitution,
proposed by Congress, and adopted by the legislatures of
three-fourths of the States of the Union.
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