10 Chapter 7 The End of Slavery

Chapter 7 The End of Slavery As the war neared the end of its second year, more than one hundred battles had been fought, with many thousands of men wounded and killed.

当战争进入第二年的尾声时，已经打了一百多场战役，成千上万的人受伤或死亡。

And still, neither side was winning. In the North, it became harder and harder to find men who were willing to join the army. And the government was running out of money to pay for the war.

然而，双方都没有获胜。 在北方，越来越难找到愿意参军的人。 而政府也快没钱支付战争费用了。

The South had broken away to keep slavery. Yet, so far, Lincoln had avoided dealing with slavery directly. Now he realized he had to face the issue. Abolitionists supported the war because they thought it would end slavery. They wanted Lincoln to make it illegal once and for all. But even in the North, a lot of people were against this idea. Lincoln was afraid to lose their support. So he hesitated. He wasn't sure that the president had the power to outlaw slavery. He had sworn to protect the laws of the United States, and slavery in the South was legal. The president couldn't just overturn laws all by himself. That had to come from the people. Only the citizens of the country could change the United States Constitution. At last, Lincoln came upon a way to do what he thought was right and at the same time obey the Constitution. A country at war was allowed to seize property that the enemy was using to fight the war. Southern states were using slave labor in many ways that helped the war effort. Lincoln

南方脱离了联邦，保留了奴隶制。 然而，到目前为止，林肯一直避免直接处理奴隶制问题。 现在他意识到他必须面对这个问题。 废奴主义者支持这场战争，因为他们认为这将结束奴隶制。 他们想让林肯把这一劳永逸地定为非法。 但即使在北方，也有很多人反对这个想法。 林肯害怕失去他们的支持。 所以他犹豫了。他不确定总统是否有权宣布奴隶制为非法。 他发誓要维护美国的法律，南方的奴隶制是合法的。 总统不可能仅凭一己之力推翻法律。 这必须来自人民。 只有这个国家的公民才能改变美国宪法。 最后，林肯找到了一个办法，既能做他认为正确的事，又能遵守宪法。 一个处于战争状态的国家被允许没收敌人用于作战的财产。 南方各州在许多方面使用奴隶劳工，这有助于战争的努力。 林肯

decided this was a good legal reason to take slaves away from their owners in the rebel states. Congress began to pass laws that chipped away at slavery. Slaves who escaped from rebel owners

认为这是一个很好的法律理由，可以将奴隶从反叛州的主人手中带走。 国会开始通过削弱奴隶制的法律。 从叛军主人那里逃出来的奴隶

or were captured by the Union army would not be returned to their owners. They were free. Then Lincoln decided to go further. Quietly, all by himself, he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. This proclamation did not free all slaves. It was an act of war, and it applied only to Confederate states. In the rebel states, all slaves would be freed forever. But in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, slavery remained legal because these states had stayed with the Union. Lincoln was sure that, once the nation was reunited, it would be possible to end slavery in the whole country. But that had to be done by Congress. As president, he only had power to act against states that were rebelling. Of course there was no way to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation until the Union had won the war. Just because the proclamation told Southerners to free their slaves, it didn't mean they would. Lincoln knew this. He said he felt like someone trying to make a law to change the

或者被联邦军队俘虏的，都不会归还给他们的主人。 它们是免费的。然后林肯决定更进一步。 他独自一人静静地撰写了《解放奴隶宣言》。 这份宣言并没有解放所有的奴隶。 这是一种战争行为，而且只适用于南方邦联各州。 在反叛的州，所有的奴隶将永远获得自由。 但在特拉华州、马里兰州、肯塔基州和密苏里州，奴隶制仍然是合法的，因为这些州留在了联邦。 林肯确信，一旦国家统一，就有可能在全国范围内结束奴隶制。 但这必须由国会来完成。 作为总统，他只有权力对叛乱的州采取行动。 当然，在联邦赢得战争之前，没有办法执行《解放奴隶宣言》。 仅仅因为宣言告诉南方人要解放他们的奴隶，并不意味着他们会这样做。 林肯知道这一点。他说他感觉就像有人试图制定法律来改变

behavior of a comet. But now he had made it clear that the Union planned to end slavery for good. When Lincoln talked to his cabinet, he told them he was not asking their advice. He had made up his mind.

彗星的行为。但是，现在他已经明确表示，联邦计划永远结束奴隶制。 当林肯向他的内阁讲话时，他告诉他们，他不是在征求他们的意见。 他已经下定决心了。