Saying What Lincoln Could Not Yet Say: George Boutwell, Emancipation, and the Great War Meeting of August 1862

Abraham Lincoln's brilliance with the written and spoken word, so often coupled with his adroit use of newspapers to shape public opinion, has been analyzed and admired by many—none more so than Douglas L. Wilson in Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words, and Harold Holzer in Lincoln and the Power of the Press. For Wilson, “enlisting popular support for a cause was the guiding star of [Lincoln's] political philosophy,” while Holzer has written that “it is time we took Lincoln at his word and examined his extraordinary focus on—and mastery of—political journalism as a means to earn and sustain voter support.” In taking him “at his word,” Holzer was referring to Lincoln's belief, expressed during the 1858 senatorial debates with Stephen Douglas, that “public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed . . . he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.”1Accordingly, this essay maintains that the Great War Meeting of August 6, 1862, a public rally of 10,000 people at the U.S. Capitol that Lincoln attended and addressed, is a heretofore unappreciated part of the president's strategy to gauge and mold public opinion that summer for the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that he decided to announce in September. A good reason for this neglect is that Lincoln said nothing about emancipation at the rally, nor did any of the other ten speakers on the platform, save one. The speeches that day focused on the main purpose of the rally, which was to urge preservation of the Union and raise public morale during the dark days of the summer of 1862. At that time, publicly calling for the abolition of slavery as a war aim was too controversial for a president who needed to keep moderate Republicans, conservative “war” Democrats, and the border states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri in line.There was only one speaker that day, George S. Boutwell, newly arrived in town to begin his duties as Lincoln's Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who declared slavery to be the cause of the war and its abolition as necessary to end it. Boutwell, a former Governor of Massachusetts who helped write the Republican party's platform at the 1860 party convention in Chicago, was well known to party leaders but almost entirely unknown to the public at large. In the early months of the war, he helped speed the delivery of Massachusetts troops and supplies to Washington for the Union war effort, then was dispatched to Cairo, Illinois to report on conditions in the Western War Department. When he returned to Washington on July 16 to begin his new duties as Revenue Commissioner, he could scarcely imagine that in a few short weeks his name would appear in newspaper headlines across the country.2On that hot, muggy afternoon of August 6, Boutwell pronounced to the crowd that, if not for slavery, “there would have been no treason; and when slavery should cease to exist, there will be no traitors. That is the beginning and the end of this war, slavery in the beginning, freedom in the end.”3 To some in the audience, Boutwell's pronouncements on slavery were needlessly provocative. Most whites in the North were not yet ready to seriously contemplate freedom for America's four million enslaved blacks, much less their civil and political equality, as a Union war aim. Nonetheless, for many others, as well as for newspaper readers across America and overseas in Britain, Boutwell was telling a truth that needed to be told.Moreover, it was a truth that Abraham Lincoln was coming to believe himself but could not yet say. The stated purpose of the rally was to generate support for the president's recent call for 300,000 additional troops, and speaker after speaker called on their fellow citizens to contribute to a war effort that would bring, as one of the adopted resolutions proclaimed, “the most crushing weight upon those in rebellion.”4 George Boutwell's call for black emancipation as necessary for winning the war was in stark contrast to the other speakers that day. Nonetheless, a solid case can be made that the president himself knew in advance and approved what Boutwell would say, as one part of the process of molding public opinion in support of the dramatic act he took when he announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22.In early August 1862, the war for the Union was not going well. The Army of the Potomac was once again retreating from a failed campaign in Virginia, sick and wounded troops were bivouacked all over Washington, wartime expenses were escalating, and friction was rife between Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Major General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac. The rally in Washington was planned as the culmination of a series of “great war meetings” that were being held across the North that summer—in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis—with the aim of re-energizing the war effort.5A Committee of Arrangements, consisting of dozens of prominent District citizens and government officials, had been meeting for weeks at the National Hotel under the direction of Mayor Richard Wallach to select the speakers and finalize the program. Notices and subsequent stories in the Washington and Baltimore papers, including German language papers, proclaimed “Citizens Arouse! An Evening for the Union!,” exhorting the public to “Come One! Come All!” The president and members of his cabinet would attend, and fireworks and the Marine Band would provide entertainment. An immense speakers’ platform was being erected on the east steps of the Capitol, festooned with the national colors, bunting, and gas jets, behind which would be a specially reserved ladies’ section and a designated section for the press.6Temperatures were in the mid-nineties that afternoon as church and fire engine bells pealed and a battery of thirty-four howitzers deployed in East Capitol Square fired a salute, calling citizens to Capitol Hill. Government offices shut down at 1:00 p.m. and businesses had been requested to close at 4:00 p.m. so that employees and workers could attend the rally. The Stars and Stripes adorned public buildings and private residences alike, and the Marine Band was playing before a crowd that would grow to 10,000 people as the proceedings began. As advertised, President Lincoln and some of his cabinet—Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Attorney General Edward Bates—would be on the stage, though they were not scheduled to speak. George Boutwell was on the speaker's list, slated to appear second.7The rally began with the reading of ten resolutions designed to stiffen patriotic resolve in support of new enlistments and the war effort. Lincoln was a bit late in arriving, making a dramatic entrance as Edward Jordan of the Treasury Department read the resolutions, the first of which declared, to great applause, that “the Union be preserved, or the country be made a desert.” Only one of the resolutions, number 8, made any mention of slavery, and that only to support the recently enacted Confiscation Act of 1862 allowing for the seizure of rebel property, to include “such of their slaves as shall take refuge within the lines of our army.” Otherwise, the resolutions stuck to the theme of loyalty to the Union and the need to root out Southern sympathizers in the nation's capital, “where treason should be instantly denounced and punished.”8As he arrived in full view of the crowd (which was perhaps the point of his tardiness), the president took at the of the while “the and of and the of the Marine the program. That first then that there could be no in the his by Lincoln and to take his this George Boutwell was the scheduled the crowd was and began for call for the President was the and a with Secretary Chase and Attorney General he good as the Marine Band to the his first public the to the he had the of the president that were and began by that there was for himself or the crowd being there that day, but that, have nothing in the which and then to of the being between Edwin Stanton and George McClellan, with the that Stanton had failed to provide him with needed in the campaign With his the president declared that is not to for for what he and and the Secretary of War is not to for not when he had to As commander in and Lincoln that he to his Lincoln the have than of of no Boutwell then took the as the and perhaps telling the as Lincoln took his that a to and not any good reason should have to between his the of Boutwell proclaimed to the with the president for the first time in the in the of Washington, if it had not been for slavery, there would have been no treason; and when slavery should cease to exist, there will be no traitors. That is the beginning and the end of this war, slavery in the beginning, freedom in the Boutwell the crowd out him that the president and his cabinet would “the and of their . . . the he and they on the when slavery shall have to the first great public rally of the war, Boutwell was the only speaker who slavery as a cause of the war and emancipation as the was the newly Internal Revenue Commissioner, unknown to most of his audience, support for emancipation that the president himself was not yet to it had only been weeks on July that Lincoln had with his full a of his and Emancipation the for the slaves in had been Lincoln's for he was to for of public opinion and the of the border and perhaps Lincoln had to his the Emancipation when would only to slaves in states and under Nonetheless, the president's on July as a to most of his cabinet opinion was not yet ready for that many in the North would to black civil and though to Lincoln had the war effort as one only was to the As he declared in his to of August weeks after the Great War in this is to save the Union and is not to save or to for George Boutwell to publicly that shall the we was to generate The of the and conservative the speeches that day, with only one the of the to the war for the to out the and attend to other the of Governor that the president himself any to the that Boutwell's had been between the of and Lincoln of which were in of the adopted and to be to by the was it that George Boutwell was not only to but so that newspaper of the meeting would his at the of their In after across the and of Boutwell's in the days the of newspaper the made by the for what he said that day, Boutwell's on the need to slavery, to the war and a were well known to Republican party leaders by the summer of 1862. he was one of members of the platform at the Republican national convention in then with the party to meeting Lincoln for the first time in the of the at and with Lincoln and the states beginning to Boutwell a series of the first of in at the of the of in Boston, declared that “the of as in the was the cause our public and national he was a to the at the Hotel in Washington, a effort called by to civil with of Virginia, the Secretary of Boutwell Southern for that the on the which has we shall our to the of or will to the Great can be no Boutwell then with Lincoln after the arrived at the by from and the early months of the war after the of Boutwell was a between Lincoln and Governor in the delivery of Massachusetts troops and supplies to In he the at in that slavery was at the of the Southern that was to the he that less than “the of a Union would to Boutwell's were well known when he arrived in Washington in July 1862 as the first Revenue or not the president was in speakers for the Great War he would have known that Boutwell would that day. would have known that Boutwell would call for the of Boutwell's to slavery by the and that the president himself could not yet good reason for so is that Lincoln had a some months with a by at the meeting of Emancipation at the 6, his of that slavery its and to the Union from by enslaved from those in and a of and emancipation to states and had with the president days at the When he his in Lincoln to and and we will it his in on the day that the President was his on emancipation to Meeting again some days Lincoln expressed his with what had been and that the public of the would . . . the public with what would abolition of if the war and to of the public was a of Lincoln's strategy for public support for his the summer of 1862, emancipation was a been yet again by the border states during a meeting of their with the president on July was if Lincoln could not yet it that more on slavery would be needed to the the of George Boutwell to the crowd at the Capitol on August 6, in no that “there can be no from the and of this the shall slavery, has for the abolition of slavery were controversial that, as Boutwell to he was to have been As he Boutwell the that he would on the need for abolition and on slavery being the cause of the to be Boutwell that the one before to have him there was members on him one who would have Boutwell's was a Republican and of the Washington National Republican newspaper who had his on the in of members of the for the was close to had been by the president to be of the District of and would have to keep Boutwell on the Boutwell on the was of the Treasury Department and the with Boutwell to A fellow of Boutwell's at the the was the and would have well Boutwell's with and former President the of the those the meeting knew what they were with As a of Lincoln's government but not the of a cabinet Boutwell was to what other as Treasury Secretary Salmon who was to Lincoln on the that day but was not one of the Boutwell said it . . . this of emancipation in the the of the of the war, and the of . . . slavery or the government is at months a of Boutwell being a for emancipation had in In Governor that he yet in his publicly support Boutwell to him at the meeting of the Emancipation before a at on As to the meeting Governor Boutwell can and what could without to our to his that summer in Washington, Boutwell's to the in the of the of the himself was coming to believe this by the summer of 1862. In the weeks after the July cabinet at which Secretary of had the president to the emancipation while for of the Union war effort, emancipation out of as has of by Lincoln to public George Boutwell in of emancipation at the Great War Meeting would have well the president's Boutwell's on August was to gauge public for it his were with and of support from the newspapers as the Washington National Republican Boutwell not to that it is that was the cause of the The and that Boutwell was often by of and In Boston, the Evening was Boutwell's emancipation . . . is much was a and effort, and was well The Evening did that the was not that Boutwell's and . . . some of his to Chicago, and the newspaper Boutwell for his and for that In St. the German language Boutwell that will only end with the of if the president was for public opinion be he could read in a that, with Boutwell the proceedings in Washington a direction of public all the it was in the Evening that to the of the in Boutwell's as the for the president as one nothing the that Lincoln was his first as and that, he from so as to take his on the platform of a public we have a to his in the of That the was the of Boutwell . . . who the of the and who that it could be and a Union again the of had been of the and of the Evening have written this of the Washington meeting and Boutwell's newspaper Boutwell for “the in to the abolition of and the only we before which will The Boutwell after the and we Lincoln was there to which . . . is the of of the Army and of the people of the to Boutwell's from the black was In The the the of the that all “the speakers were but the S. Boutwell was the only one out of who to take a in of the In his Boutwell for that slavery as it, “the only of our national As for the once again Lincoln for the emancipation the president's as of and was well and in from to to Boutwell's call for has being the Union well with the as was the the of the from the In the days of summer 1862, it helped public opinion the of and the who to and with Southern newspapers in the the Great War though they had to on and newspaper from the Most of not or what Boutwell had to about emancipation being necessary for the Union to the they focused on recent to stiffen as the of a by Major General in and newspaper across the North to Boutwell's that public opinion was if slavery as the of the and emancipation as the as a emancipation as called for by George Boutwell to at the Capitol, a newspaper of many and the president behind was taking shape as a Union war aim. For days and weeks after the dozens of newspapers the of of that across the his to on August Lincoln that he would save the Union by “the under the that or some of the Lincoln the part of that when he his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that, when it on would those slaves in as a wartime has written that President Lincoln a In and 1862, Lincoln was the of a Republican from the black and for and all while a war effort by a of and George Boutwell himself as that Lincoln only to than to the Republican and that the president and for the of public sentiment which he well knew were in the The Great War Meeting and Boutwell's that day appear to have been part of that slavery in no Boutwell's on August the of support for the of whites in and black in In the he the crowd of days in “there was a between the and the in and the is the of this between the and the of the to the a in which if the was the Union with slavery whites would to for from those to the was a on which they and have in the of the was to to whites that emancipation was in their . . . have to take the he slavery in the a and out of the North by the of or the North to be by from the then the more in that newly would to the and the of the and the and they to the people of the North freedom from in was too a of but one that made it for many in the and in the to has written that Boutwell was the of black states by the the of the of and and states over to the in The Boutwell's that “the states of and should be to the black . . . and the of . . . to the people from the to there and a Boutwell would call a Boutwell would in as a Massachusetts his the of to in and to which they would in to and in they were a and not to has in and the that Major General was a when he the and of and for mention of the that when a black in newly should be or in members the A short time this the of the to and so that enslaved could begin to as only Boutwell would the more that it made the most to black in of the so that when could their political and not have it across a section of the country by in making Boutwell was playing to the of whites who In his he the president's declared of to in the border states who their slaves that the of this country be to for the of their his Boutwell declared that slavery or the government is at the Boutwell was by additional speakers as the crowd for the The Marine Band and fireworks the as the at p.m. in the crowd had been on their for more than Boutwell made his to his on ready to the of the Internal Revenue effort the would so with a much than when arrived in town from Cairo, Illinois on July months between Abraham Lincoln emancipation with his on July and then publicly on September his to the Emancipation Proclamation on the states the is one of the most in The president well have to use emancipation as a to Union but he had to public opinion with him that Lincoln that to in the border and the abolition of slavery while making as a war aim more to of the At he the as he did in in to the from the border states to by for When that was he then his of the Emancipation Proclamation as a necessary war to his on July in the president's strategy was his August meeting with black and leaders at the he once again the of including and the meeting Lincoln's that was than as part of his strategy to for and have that Lincoln knew that was and but that support for was necessary to the of conservative Republican and of the In the August Lincoln's to in to the cause of is the in as has “the of the of that a public needed to the of Boutwell's at the Great War Meeting days with its on in the after emancipation to with can be as part of this the of or support for to the of moderate and conservative whites who the black and that would be in by In its Boutwell's in well with the president's as Harold Holzer has the and for black the weeks the Great War Boutwell often with the president to the of the of Treasury Department needed to the new by to the war effort. often the would war Boutwell one meeting taking at the on August the day after the Union at the of “the day of the of the to that their was the president Boutwell for his opinion as to that he to Boutwell his opinion that the only out of our Lincoln we not for that a not a appear as Boutwell it as “the only from the this time, Boutwell was that the president was to and than from who any of Lincoln had said on to this Government without playing As Boutwell emancipation was the president's in the that the Union would be for and that Lincoln was for good on the war to his That Boutwell to the that have for that a by our troops would a that we September Abraham Lincoln the he was but at the of more than Union as the Army of the Potomac the advance at the of on what would the day of the the president was with for not the retreating under General as they the Potomac Virginia, the at was of a to with his emancipation As Lincoln to Boutwell, over the made a that if him would the after days on September the president publicly his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and declared it would on in any that in the national As Douglas Wilson has “the president . . . had a as of a September the day after Lincoln announced his to the George Boutwell to his in was that the emancipation he had called for at the Great War Meeting on the steps of the U.S. Capitol had been in the write Boutwell his have of the Proclamation of . . . to be great the it is the most of Boutwell would the as Abraham Lincoln's to process by which the Emancipation Proclamation was by the to his cabinet in publicly announced in and then on will be by Lincoln for to those Lincoln had to political within war strategy that was not going well. the Lincoln that he would have to the public with the need and for he would the and the process of America's four million enslaved taking the to which many of did by to Union August 6, 1862, Abraham Lincoln could not yet what George Boutwell and to a crowd of 10,000 and a newspaper of many of Nonetheless, good reason to believe that, what Boutwell said that day, the president's was all too