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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: time claim that the fugitive slave law was in force, and that his
slaves would not be given up unless he returned and took the oath
of allegiance to the United States. In reporting this, a
newspaper pointed out that as the breastworks and batteries which
had risen so rapidly for Confederate defense were built by slave
labor, negroes were undoubtedly "contraband of war," like powder
and shot, and other military supplies, and should no more be
given back to the rebels than so many cannon or guns. The idea
was so pertinent, and the justice of it so plain that the name
"contraband" sprang at once into use. But while this happy
explanation had more convincing effect on popular thought than a
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