When, early in the war, general fremont attempted military emancipation, i forbade it, because i did not then think it an indispensable necessity. when, a little later, general cameron, then secretary of war, suggested the arming of the blacks, i objected, because i did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. when, still later, general hunter attempted military emancipation, i forbade it, because i did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. 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 in a paragraph of three to five sentences, summarize president lincoln’s meaning in the paragraph in bold.