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Abraham Lincoln on slavery and freedom
Abraham Lincoln on slavery and freedom
Abraham Lincoln on slavery and freedom
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The Emancipation Proclamation Essay Knowing the history of your country is very important. But know the history behind the choices your country commander in chief makes decisions is even more important especially when they are historical decisions. Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves but did he do it because he felt bad or was it because he was pissed off that the southern states wanted to go against him? After reading all three essays it is clear that the ultimate legacy of the Emancipation Proclamation was to unite all the states under one rule again and because Lincoln was pissed off with the south for wanting to rebel against the United States decided to free the slaves. In addition, Lincoln felt bad about slavery and wanted it to end “because it prevented the Negro from eating the bread which his own hands earns” according to author Stephen B. Oates as noted in “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation”. But after he lost the 1858 Senate contest to Douglas. He realized that his way of thinking is not going to help him with presidency so he put the thought of freeing the slaves out of his head. According to article “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” Lincoln “ he repeated …show more content…
According to article “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” written by author Stephen B. Oates. “After Lincoln's victory and the secession of the seven states of the Deep South. Lincoln beseeched Southerners to understand the Republican position on slavery. In his Inaugural Address of 1861. he .15- sured them once again that the federal government would not tree the slaves in the South. that it had no legal right to do so. He even gave his blessings to the original Thirteenth Amendment. just passed by Congress. that would have guaranteed slavery in the Southern states for as long as whites there wanted it”. But the rebels out the south wanted to do things there way and continued to rebel against the United
Lincoln was a very smart lawyer and politician. During his “House Divided” speech he asked the question, “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half slave, and half free?" When he first asked this question, America was slowly gaining the knowledge and realizing that as a nation, it could not possibly exist as half-slave and half-free. It was either one way or the other. “Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral, but not simply on a practical level.” (Greenfield, 2009) Slave states and free states had significantly different and incompatible interests. In 1858, when Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech, he made people think about this question with views if what the end result in America must be.
At the time, the South depended on slavery to support their way of life. In fact, “to protect slavery the Confederate States of America would challenge the peaceful, lawful, orderly means of changing governments in the United States, even by resorting to war.” (635) Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and realized that slavery was bitterly dividing the country. Not only was slavery dividing the nation, but slavery was also endangering the Union, hurting both black and white people and threatening the processes of government. At first, Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union in which “he would free none, some, or all the slaves to save that Union.” (634) However, Lincoln realized that “freeing the slaves and saving the Union were linked as one goal, not two optional goals.” (634) Therefore, Lincoln’s primary goal was to save the Union and in order to save the Union, Lincoln had to free the slaves. However, Paludan states that, “slave states understood this; that is why the seceded and why the Union needed saving.” (634) Lincoln’s presidential victory was the final sign to many Southerners that their position in the Union was
If Lincoln was really the Great Emancipator he would have freed the slaves the first chance he got, but he didn’t. An amendment that helps prove this is the Corwin Amendment. This Amendment stated that slavery laws can only be changed by the states (Doc. C). In Document D, Lincoln stated that, “...to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service.” This quote shows how Lincoln agreed with the Corwin Amendment, and by agreeing to this it proves that Lincoln’s main goal was to keep the nation together. If he was really the Great Emancipator he would have disagreed with this amendment and stated his true state of mind. Also according to Emancipation Proclamation it said, “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free;” (Doc. H) This sentence from the Emancipation Proclamation talks about freeing the slaves, but if you go into detail you will realize that the only slaves he is freeing are the ones in the South, and since the South is another nation they won’t even listen. This also clearly shows how he wasn’t going to free the slaves in the border states. Also according to the Emancipation Proclamation he gave the South about 4 months to
Clay had a unique perspective on the abolishment of slavery. Henry Clay wanted to slavery to be abolished within the early United States, but his motives leaned more towards have these slaves returned to their original countries, thus making them unable to become citizens of the United States. A large number of citizens in the north supported this ideal because they felt it was an effective way to eliminate slavery and remove the possibility of these enslaved men becoming apart of their society. Abraham Lincoln had a strong moral compass that he used to determine decisions on most of the major issues he encountered. He believed slavery to be morally wrong and had difficulty comprehending how people were able to justify its morality. Lincoln was disgusted by the treatment that took place in slavery. He believed that if one to remove the moral obligation within slavery and the mere realization of its cruelty, there are no there reasons to inhibit the expansion of it. At this particular time, slavery was an exceptionally prominent source of income, giving those who owned the most slaves, the most wealth. Because slavery produced such a resource of income, Lincoln knew that if given the opportunity, slavery would only increase.
Though the proclamation did not bring about an immediate effect, the idea that, "all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free”, aided in the strategery of the war, ultimately foreshadowing the passage of the 13th amendment. After the minute, nearly ineffective results of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln searched for a new way to promote abolishing slavery, in hopes of ending the war in favor of the northern states. As the war was nearing end, Lincoln made it a priority to ratify the 13th amendment before the end of the civil war was official. Because of the divided congress, in which one party controls the house and the other the senate, Passing any amendment proved more difficult than ever before. Because of these difficulties, Lincoln fell to passing the amendment by corruption. One way in which corruption was practiced by Lincoln was through the use of
Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was the belief that the expansion of it to Free states and new territories should be ceased and that it eventually be abolished completely throughout the country. He believed simply that slavery was morally wrong, along with socially and politically wrong in the eyes of a Republican. Lincoln felt that this was a very important issue during the time period because there was starting to be much controversy between the Republicans and the Democrats regarding this issue. There was also a separation between the north and the south in the union, the north harboring the Free states and the south harboring the slave states. Lincoln refers many times to the Constitution and its relations to slavery. He was convinced that when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution their intentions were to be quite vague surrounding the topic of slavery and African-Americans, for the reason that he believes was because the fathers intended for slavery to come to an end in the distant future, in which Lincoln refers to the "ultimate extinction" of slavery. He also states that the men who wrote the constitution were wiser men, but obviously did not have the experience or technological advances that the men of his day did, hence the reasons of the measures taken by our founding fathers.
When President Lincoln first called for troops to put down the confederate rebellion, he made no connection between this action and an attempt to end slavery. In fact, he explicitly stated "the utmost care will be observed to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property..." At this point, slavery was not yet integral to the struggle, it was much more important for the Union to air on the side of political prudence and avoid angering loyal boarder states. However, despite this lack of political dialogue, many abolitionists, slaves, and free blacks felt the war to preserve the union could also be a war to end slavery. In the end, they were right, as military need overwhelmed potential political dangers, slaves and the institution of slavery became a central issue in the civil war.
Reading Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address, one wouldn’t think he would be the president to end slavery.Speaking on outlawing slavery, he says,“I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” At the time, Lincoln wasn’t worried about slavery,
In a speech that Lincoln gave prior to his presidency, we can see how ambiguous his stance on slavery truly was. This speech, known as the ‘House Divided’ speech, was given on the 16th of June, 1858, and outlined his beliefs regarding secession, but did not solidify the abolition of slavery as his main goal. Lincoln states that the nation “could not endure, permanently half slave and half free,” and that the slavery will either cease to exist, or will encompass all states lawfully (Lincoln). At this point in his life, Lincoln’s primary concern is clearly with the preservation of the nation.
Then, once the Civil War began, he was merely trying to preserve what was left of an unstable union. The true “Emancipators” of slavery lie in the grass roots people of that time, the abolitionists, Frederick Douglas, and the slaves themselves. The slaves earned their freedom. Lincoln was merely a man who let the events of his era determine his policy. “I claim not to have controlled events but confess plainly that events controlled me.”
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 during the civil war, as main goal to win the war. Some historians argued that it was based on feelings towards slaves because not only it freed slaves in the South; it was also a huge step for the real abolition of slavery in the United States. While other historians argued that it was a military tactic because it strengthened the Union army, because the emancipated slaves were joining the Union thus providing a larger manpower than the Confederacy . The Emancipation Proclamation emancipated slaves only in the Confederacy and did not apply to the Border-states and the Union states.
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
Contrary to what today’s society believes about Lincoln, he was not a popular man with the South at this period in time. The South wanted to expand towards the West but Lincoln created a geographical containment rule keeping slavery in the states it currently resided in. Despite his trying to rationalize with the South, Lincoln actually believed something different ”Lincoln claimed that he, like the Founding Fathers, saw slavery in the Old South as regrettable reality whose expansion could and should be arrested, thereby putting it on the long and gradual road ”ultimate extinction” (216). He believed it to be “evil” thus “implying that free southerners were evil for defending it”(275). Lincoln wanted to wipe out slavery for good and the South could sense his secret motives. By trying to trick them, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and launched what is today known as the Civil war.
Lincoln declared that “all persons held as slaves” in areas in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Not only liberate slaves in the border slave states, but the President has purposely made the proclamation in all places in the South where the slaves were existed. While the Emancipation Proclamation was an important turning point in the war. It transformed the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. According the history book “A People and a Nation”, the Emancipation Proclamation was legally an ambiguous document, but as a moral and political document it had great meaning. It was a delicate balancing act because it defined the war as a war against slavery, not the war from northern and southern people, and at the same time, it protected Lincoln’s position with conservatives, and there was no turning
The drive to end slavery in the United States was a long one, from being debated in the writing of the Declaration of Independence, to exposure of its ills in literature, from rebellions of slaves, to the efforts of people like Harriet Tubman to transport escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad. Abolitionists had urged President Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves in the Confederate states from the very outset of the Civil War. By mid-1862, Lincoln had become increasingly convinced of the moral imperative to end slavery, but he hesitated (History.com). As commander-in-chief of the Union Army, he had military objectives to consider (History.com). On one hand, emancipation might