Lincoln himself drafted a resolution embodying the ideas he
thought it would be wise for the public meetings to adopt. It read:
"Whereas, while _heretofore_ States, and Nations, have
tolerated slavery, _recently_, for the first time in the
world, an attempt has been made to construct a new Nation,
upon the basis of, and with the primary, and fundamental
object to maintain, enlarge, and perpetuate human slavery,
therefore,
_Resolved_: that no such embryo State should ever be
recognized by, or admitted into, the family of Christian and
civilized nations; and that all Christian and civilized men
everywhere should, by all lawful means, resist to the utmost,
such recognition or admission[964]."
This American hope much disturbed Lyons. On his return to Washington, in
November, 1862, he had regarded the emancipation proclamation as a
political manoeuvre purely and an unsuccessful one. The administration
he thought was losing ground and the people tired of the war. This was
the burden of his private letters to Russell up to March, 1863, but does
not appear in his official despatches in which there was nothing to give
offence to Northern statesmen. But in March, Lyons began to doubt the
correctness of these judgments. He notes a renewed Northern enthusiasm
leading to the conferring of extreme powers--the so-called "dictatorship
measures"--upon Lincoln.
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