Vain as the Pope’s Bull Against the Comet
The potency of the Emancipation Act was so patent to the least politician that, long before 1863, when its announcement opened the memorable year for freedom, not only had its demonstration been implored by his friends, but some of his subordinates had tried to launch its lightning with not so impersonal a sentiment. To a religious body, pressing him to verify his title of Abolitionist, he replied:
“I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the pope’s bull against the comet.”