Existing comment:
1862:
July 22, 1862
Lincoln confides in his Cabinet, reading them a draft proclamation that would free, as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the United States. Intense debate follows. Might the act lead to slave insurrection? Could it withstand challenges in the courts?
Lincoln reluctantly agrees to put his draft aside.
August 14, 1862
Meeting with a delegation of prominent African Americans. Lincoln proposes a colony for free blacks in Central America. "I do not known how much attachment you may have toward our race," he tells the group. "It does not strike me that you have toward our race," he tells the group. "It does not strike me that you have the greatest reason to love them." He says nothing of the proclamation sitting in his desk. |