The Confederates cited this in the face of the Emancipation Proclamation:
Ah, but what if he did?
Napoleon I. was never induced to issue a proclamation for the emancipation of the serfs in his war with Russia. He said: "I could have armed against her a part of her population, by proclaiming the liberty of the serfs. A great number of villages asked it of me, but I refused to avail myself of a measure which would have devoted to death thousands of families."
Ah, but what if he did?