The Flag Nailed to the Mast

September 11, 1863

“Our nation has made a long step forward in its course toward victory….Even if we creep slowly onward, hereafter as heretofore, it is now made certain that we are creeping in the right direction, and that Abraham Lincoln intends to proceed in that direction…..There was some reason to fear that a man who excused himself for doing justice, on the ground of military necessity, might, in changed circumstances, avail himself of the same plea for perpetuating  injustice. ..Now, Heaven be praised! This danger is forever past.  Mr. Lincoln has evidently taken courage from the movement of Northern people in the direction of freedom, and is relieved from the fear that movements of his own in that direction would fail for want of popular cooperation.  He now declares, in a tone more affirmative and decided than ever before, his purpose to stand by the policy of enfranchisement, as far as the enforcement of the Proclamation.    ….Congratulations on the present, however, must not make us forgetful of the work yet to be done…. Let us recognize the utter abolition of American slavery not only as indispensable, …but as the indispensable pre-requisite ‘in order to form a more perfect union’…”   Signed  “C.K.W.”

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