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[231] not be attained without successful war upon the States against which it was directed. In fact, we know that the attempt to attain these objects by the means proposed in the proclamation, resulted in the complete overthrow of those States as political organizations and their re-establishment as members of the present Union under conditions prescribed by the power acquired by successful war.

But the proclamation further declares that it is an effort ‘to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our national Union and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.’

Under such vague specifications there could be no limitation upon the use the President might make of the army he called into the field except his own will.

What, for example, did the proclamation mean by popular government? There were multitudes of people in the North who did not regard the governments of the slave States as popular governments.

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