It was undoubtedly a very sweeping enactment, the operation of which was not confined to the States which had been slave-holding, but bore directly upon some of the free States where the negro had always been deprived of certain rights fully guaranteed to the white man.
This statement highlights the broad implications of the enactment, affecting both former slave-holding states and free states regarding African American rights.
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But in the treatment of the colored man, now proposed, there was absolute heartlessness and rank injustice.
In all the revolted states, upon the testimony of your ablest generals, there is no safety to the property or lives of loyal men.
In my judgment our sole authority for the acts which we have done during the last four years was the authority communicated to Congress by the Constitution to suppress insurrection.
I refer myself not to the men of my time, but to the judgment of history.
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