"The particular clause, however, in relation to the Confiscation of
Property and the Liberation of Slaves, appeared to me to be
objectionable in its non-conformity to the Act of Congress, passed the
6th of last August, upon the same subjects; and hence I wrote you
expressing my wish that that clause should be modified accordingly.
"Your answer, just received, expresses the preference, on your part,
that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very
cheerfully do.
"It is therefore Ordered, that the said clause of said proclamation be
so modified, held, and construed as to conform to, and not to transcend,
the provisions on the same subject contained in the Act of Congress
entitled, 'An Act to Confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary
Purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, and that said Act be published at
length with this Order.
"Your obedient servant,
"A. LINCOLN.
"Major-General JOHN C. FREMONT."
In consequence, however, of the agitation on the subject, the extreme
delicacy with which it was thought advisable in the earliest stages of
the Rebellion to treat it, and the confusion of ideas among Military men
with regard to it, the War Department issued the following General
Instructions on the occasion of the departure of the Port Royal
Expedition, commanded by General T.
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