Stories and Anecdotes About Abraham Lincoln

Prev | Next | Contents

"SURRENDER NO SLAVE."

About March, 1862, General Benjamin F. Butler, in command at Fortress Monroe, advised President Lincoln that he had determined to regard all slaves coming into his camps as contraband of war, and to employ their labor under fair compensation, and Secretary of War Stanton replied to him, in behalf of the President, approving his course, and saying, "You are not to interfere between master and slave on the one hand, nor surrender slaves who may come within your lines."

This was a significant milestone of progress to the great end that was thereafter to be reached.

Prev | Next | Contents