"_Sir_:--Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d inst., is just received. Assured that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the necessities of your position than I could at this distance, on seeing your proclamation of August 30th, I perceived no general objection to it; 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 with, 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 the said act be published at length with this order. "Your obedient servant, "A. LINCOLN."[86] Gen. Fremont's removal followed speedily. He was in advance of the slow coach at Washington, and was sent where he could do no harm to the enemy of the country, by emancipating Negroes. It seems as if there were nothing else left for Gen. Fremont to do but to free the slaves in his military district. They were the bone and sinew of Confederate resistance. It was to weaken the enemy that the general struck down this peculiar species of property, upon which the enemy of the country relied so entirely. Major-Gen. David Hunter assumed command at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on the 31st of March, 1862. On the 9th of May he issued the following "General Order:" "HEADQUARTERS DEP'T OF THE SOUTH, "HILTON HEAD, S. C., May 9, 1862. "_General Order_, No. 11. "The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, comprising the Military Department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the United States of America, and, having taken up arms against the United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare them under martial law. "This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible. The persons in these States--Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina--heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free."[87] But the President, in ten days after its publication, rescinded the order of General Hunter, in the following Proclamation: