It was as _a military necessity_ that I urged these measures; it is as a military necessity that I now uphold them, and insist upon their completest and most generous execution, so that they shall have the largest scope and efficacy. Not as Abolitionist, not as Antislavery man, not even as philanthropist,--if I may claim that honored name,--do I now speak. I forget, for the moment, all the unutterable wrong of Slavery, and all the transcendent blessings of Freedom; for they do not belong to this argument. I think only of my country menaced by rebellion, and ask how it shall be saved. But I have no policy, no theory, no resolutions to support,--nothing which I will not gladly abandon, if you will show me anything better. “If you know better rules than these, be free, Impart them; but if not, use these with me.”[115] And now, what is the object of the war? This question is often asked, and the answer is not always candid. It is sometimes said that it is to abolish Slavery. Here is a mistake, or a misrepresentation. It is sometimes said, in cant language, that the object is “the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was.” Here is another mistake or misrepresentation, which becomes more offensive when it is known that by “the Constitution as it is” is meant simply the right to hold and hunt slaves, and by “the Union as it was” is meant those halcyon days of Proslavery Democracy, when the ballot-box was destroyed in Kansas, when freedom of debate was menaced in the Senate, and when chains were put upon the Boston Court-House. Not for any of these things is this war waged. Not to abolish Slavery or to establish Slavery, but simply to put down the Rebellion. And here the question occurs, How can this object be best accomplished? In discussing this question with proper frankness, I shall develop and vindicate that policy of which the President’s Proclamation is the herald, and to which his Administration is publicly pledged. The Administration belongs to us, and we belong to the Administration. My aim is to bring the Administration and the people nearer together, by showing the ground on which they must meet, for the sake of the Republic, and that it may not perish beneath felon blows. * * * * *