[Illustration: SOUTHERN TROOPS LEAVING CORINTH.] The Un-ion cause, by this last step, held the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er as far down as Vicks-burg. Pres-i-dent Lin-coln’s heart was glad at the strong work in the West, the news of which came to him but a few weeks af-ter he had heard from the South that Ad-mir-al Far-ra-gut and Gen. But-ler held the cit-y of New Or-leans. Far-ra-gut then went up the Mis-sis-sip-pi as far as Vicks-burg and it was thought then that the whole riv-er would soon be held by Un-ion for-ces. The gains by the boys in blue at that time made a stir in the South and then it was that each man who could bear arms had to take part in the war. The men who led the troops of the South did strong work for their cause. In 1861 there were fights big and small and most of these were won by the South. In 1862 the war went on and the North won some hard fights, though at times there were great loss-es and dark days. The South bore up well, and though crops were poor, and they could not get goods, still they fought as brave-ly as ev-er, and felt that they should at last win. In Vir-gin-ia, the foe had some grand men to lead them, and for a time it seemed as if they must win. They were bound to-geth-er with strong ties, and heart, head, and hand, each, did its best. When Lin-coln came to be Pres-i-dent it was well known that he had a great dis-like to sla-ver-y. But the war, as he said, time af-ter time, was “not fought to put down sla-ver-y but to save the Un-ion.” At the North man-y found fault with Lin-coln be-cause he did not make haste to set the slaves free. The Pres-i-dent plain-ly said, “If I could save the Un-ion, though I did not free a slave I would do it. Still, in my own heart it is my wish, that all men, in all lands, should be free.” Lin-coln tried hard to keep the bor-der states friend-ly to the Un-ion cause. One way that would have made them foes would have been to free the slaves at once. One day, while sail-ing down the Po-to-mac Riv-er, en route to the ar-my for a vis-it, the Pres-i-dent wrote out some thoughts on this theme which had been in his mind for a long time. Then, when Con-gress had made an end of its work, af-ter hav-ing passed an act “tak-ing a-way the prop-er-ty” of the foe, there was a meet-ing of the cab-i-net, made up of men who were a help to the Pres-i-dent. Slaves were “prop-er-ty” and as prop-er-ty was to be seized, slaves, of course, could be tak-en. They were at that time at work as team-sters and on forts. Why, then, would it not be a good time to give them their free-dom? With this ques-tion in his mind, the Pres-i-dent went to his desk and took from it a pa-per which he then read to his “cab-i-net.” It said; “On and af-ter the first day of Jan-u-a-ry, 1863, all slaves with-in a-ny state or states where the con-sti-tu-tion-al au-thor-i-ty of the U-ni-ted States shall not be re-cog-nized, sub-mit-ted to, and main-tained, shall thence-for-ward and for-ev-er be free.”