When, in march and may and july, 1862, i made earnest and successive appeals to the border states to favor compensated emancipation, i believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. they declined the proposition; and i was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the union, and with it the constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. i chose the latter. in choosing it, i hoped for greater gain than loss; but of this i was not entirely
yours truly,
a. lincoln
what does president lincoln describe in the lines in bold?
the highlight of his presidency
a start of a new war
a difficult decision he made