"Recurring to the President, there are a great many reports
concerning him which seem to be reliable and authentic, which,
after all, are not so. It was currently reported among the
Anti-Slavery men of Illinois that the Emancipation Proclamation was
extorted from him by the outward pressure, and particularly by the
Delegation from the Christian Convention that met at Chicago.

"Now, the fact is this, as I had it from his own lips: He had
written the Proclamation in the Summer, as early as June, I think
--but will not be certain as to the precise time--and called his
Cabinet together, and informed them he had written it and meant to
make it, but wanted to read it to them for any criticism or remarks
as to its features or details.

"After having done so, Mr. Seward suggested whether it would not be
well for him to withhold its publication until after we had gained
some substantial advantage in the Field, as at that time we had met
with many reverses, and it might be considered a cry of despair.
He told me he thought the suggestion a wise one, and so held on to
the Proclamation until after the Battle of Antietam."]

Be that as it may, however, sufficient evidences exist, to prove that he
must have been fully aware, at the time of making that appeal to the
supposed patriotism of these Border-State men, how much, how very much,
depended on the manner of their reception of it.

To him, that meeting was a very solemn and portentous one. He had
studied the question long and deeply--not from the standpoint of his own
mere individual feelings and judgment, but from that of fair