Existing comment:
"If I could save the Union without freeing ANY slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing ALL the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery... I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do NOT believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do LESS whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do MORE whenever I believe doing more will help the cause."
-- Abraham Lincoln, August 1862.
Lincoln saw slavery as the root of the Southern rebellion -- but he proceeded carefully, partly to avoid alienating Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, where slavery was legal. He felt that these border states were critical to the success of the fragile Union coalition.
Lincoln's personal antipathy to slavery changed little -- but his approach to ending it changed significantly. As the war dragged on during the summer of 1862, he began to view "the prospect of emancipation as a military tool for subduing the rebellion," since it would deprive the South of laborers and open a new pool of fighting men for the Union cause.
Lincoln believed his only power to end slavery existing in the war powers of the commander in chief. Consequently, his early drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation and the final decree itself applied only to "all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state... in rebellion against the United States." Border states and areas under Union control were exempt.
Lincoln fought to give emancipation the force of Constitutional law. In April 1864, when the House of Representatives at first failed to pass a proposed Thirteenth Amendment abolishing all slavery, the president insisted that passage of the amendment be added to the Republican party platform during his reelection campaign, and he turned his great political skill to persuading enough Democratic congressmen to join Republicans in passing it. The House passed it on January 31, 1865, and three-quarters of the state legislatures ratified it by December 6, 1865. The amendment guaranteed a permanent, legally binding end to slavery throughout the United States.
1861:
August 6: Congress passes the First Confiscation Act, authorizing seizure of slaves employed in the Confederate states.
August 30: General John C. Fremont issues an order to free slaves of Confederates in Missouri -- Lincoln cancels the order.
1862:
April 16: Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, offering financial compensation to owners who pledge loyalty to the Union, and appropriating money for voluntary colonization of former slaves outside of the United States. Lincoln supports the measure.
May 19: Lincoln cancels General David Hunter's order to free slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
July 12: Reading from a carefully prepared paper, Lincoln urges congressmen from border states to embrace gradual compensated emancipation.
July 17: Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act defining the rebels as traitors and ordering the confiscation of their property sixty days after a presidential "public proclamation and order." This act also declared rebel slaves "forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves."
July 22: Lincoln reads the first draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Secretary of State Seward urges him to wait for a victory on the battlefield to issue it.
September 17: The Union Army of the Potomac commanded by McClellan defeats Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Antietam, Maryland.
September 22: The Second Confiscation Act's call for a presidential proclamation spurs Lincoln to act on the plan he has been formulating for many weeks. He issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring that slaves in state in rebellion as of January 1, 1863 "shall forever be free."
1864:
April 8: With Lincoln's support, the Senate passes a constitutional amendment calling for the immediate and uncompensated end of slavery across the country. When the House defeats it, Lincoln presses for its passage throughout 1864.
July 18: Lincoln writes a general letter stating that his conditions for beginning any negotiations on ending the war include "the abandonment of slavery."
1865:
January 31: The House of Representatives passes and sends the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to the state legislatures. The necessary three-quarters of the states ratify it within the year, ending slavery throughout the United States. |