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Nor
was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath
in using that power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary civil
administration, this oath even forbade me practically to indulge my
private abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I did
understand, however, also, that my oath imposed upon me the duty of
preserving, to the best of my ability, by every indispensable means, that
government, that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic law.
I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tied to
preserve the Constitution--if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, I
should permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution all
together." In other words, if the salvation of the government, the
Constitution, and the Union demanded the destruction of slavery, he felt
it to be not only his right, but his sworn duty to destroy it. Its
destruction became a necessity of the war for the Union.
As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense of that
necessity steadily grew upon him.


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