Lincoln, who was never an obstinate man, and who in the matter of his Proclamation of Emancipation had surrendered his own judgment under the pressure of public opinion, would not have been likely to wrestle with Congress and the country in a mad struggle for his own way.
Julian comments on Lincoln's flexibility and willingness to adapt his policies in response to public opinion, particularly regarding emancipation.
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No situation could well be more deplorable than that which obliges a man to pay heavy black- mail as the only means of saving his property from legal confiscation by another; and the moral ravages of a code which allows this can not be…
But this treatment of the Abolitionists was manifestly unjust.
I not only meant that they should not be ashamed of it, but that, if possible, it should stand the test of criticism, both as to matter and diction.
Moreover, men absorbed in a feverish and hazardous industry, and stimulated by the hope of sudden wealth, are not disposed to consider the advantages of permanent ownership and security of title.
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