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What Douglass did not know was that Lincoln had already drafted a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation but had not made it public. Lincoln wanted to free the slaves, but he felt that the nation was not yet ready for an antislavery war. He was an astute judge of public opinion and knew that he could not be more than one step ahead of it without losing support. His colonization plan helped in this effort; it was good politics and made emancipation seem tolerable to conservatives, especially slaveholders in the border states. The tide of public opinion was beginning to turn.
But Lincoln also needed a Union victory. The war was not going well, and people were losing patience. With a major battle about to begin in September 1862, he was still hesitant about going public with his plan. But after General George McClellan defeated Robert E. Lee at Antietam, Lincoln declared that as of Jan. 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebel states would be "forever free." And the final Emancipation Proclamation called for the enlistment of black troops.
With emancipation, Douglass's attitude toward Lincoln suddenly and dramatically changed. Never again would he so harshly criticize the President, even though they continued to disagree on many things. He knew that the proclamation was a revolutionary document that turned the war into a "contest of civilization against barbarism" rather than a struggle for territory, as he put it. It acquired for him "a life and power far beyond its letter" and became another sacred text, which restored the Declaration to its rightful place at the center of the nation's laws. Henceforth, he said, Jan. 1 would rank with July 4 as the twin births of liberty.
In August 1863, Douglass met with the President for the first time. Since January he had been eagerly recruiting blacks, urging MEN OF COLOR, TO ARMS. But black soldiers were being discriminated against. They received about half the pay whites did and were not being promoted for distinguished service. Worse still, black prisoners were being murdered or enslaved by Confederates. As a result of these injustices, Douglass quit recruiting and went to Washington to plead his case to the President.
When Douglass entered the White House, the stairway was filled with applicants, all of them white men. He thought he would have to wait all day, but within two minutes of sending up his card, a messenger called for him. As he elbowed his way up the stairs, he heard someone remark, "Yes, damn it, I knew they would let the n_____ through."
When Lincoln saw Douglass, he rose to greet him. "Mr. Douglass, I know you; I have read about you ... Sit down, I am glad to see you." He referred to Douglass's attack on his "tardy, hesitating, vacillating policy" and acknowledged that at times he might seem slow to act. But he denied wavering: "When I have once taken a position, I have [never] retreated from it." After hearing Douglass's complaints, Lincoln assured him that black soldiers would eventually receive the same pay as white soldiers, and he promised to sign any promotion for blacks that the Secretary of War recommended.He had already signed an order aimed at preventing Confederates from murdering blacks that stipulated that "for every soldier killed in violation of the laws of war a rebel soldier shall be executed."