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 confident...
Yours truly,

A. Lincoln

What does President Lincoln describe in the lines in bold?

A. The highlight of his Presidency
B. The end of the long war
C. A start of a new war
D. A difficult decision he made