Existing comment:
Fall 1863:
A Slow Walker:
In the fall of 1863, Lincoln wrote a letter to be read at a meeting in Springfield, Illinois. He began by acknowledging that not everyone was happy over his efforts to end slavery.
"You say you will not fight to free negroes," Lincoln took his critics. "Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union... But negroes, like other people, act upon motives," added the president. "Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive -- even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept."
There would be no turning back on emancipation. "I am a slow walker," Lincoln once remarked. "But I never walk back."
June 1863:
The Greatest Communicator:
Lacking modern means of mass communication did not prevent Lincoln from reaching, educating, and inspiring his countrymen.
A classic example of Lincoln's persuasive powers came in a letter from June 1863. Some New York Democrats were mad at Lincoln for the arrest of an Ohio congressman accused of promoting military desertion and hindering the draft. "Must I shoot a simple-minded boy who deserts," wrote Lincoln, "while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert?"
Half a million copies of Lincoln's letter were printed for distribution, and read by as many as 10,000,000 people -- a greater share of the national audience than might tune into a modern day presidential address on television. In November, the offending congressman was crushed at the polls. |