The Road to Emancipation
The Road to Emancipation
At the Outset of the War:
From the outset of the war in April of 1861, Lincoln insisted his government’s only war aim was to re-unite the country. It was not, he insisted very publicly, to abolish slavery. He said:
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not to either save or destroy slavery. If I could save the union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; if I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and, if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do it.”
Congressional View
Republicans in Congress thought otherwise.In march of 1862,
- Congress forbade the army to return slaves to their masters, as they had been doing.
- In April of 1862, Congress outlawed slavery in the District of Columbia.
- In June of 1862, Congress outlawed slavery in the western territories.
Lincoln’s Response
Never-the-less, Lincoln backed a plan that would have paid an owner for each slave freed. He then intended to return the freed slave to Africa. He pursued this policy because he feared inciting rebellion in the boarder states and a negative reaction from Union soldiers who had joined the fight to save the Union, not free slaves.
But, by mid summer he knew this initiative had failed. Slave owners in the boarder states had not warmed to his purchase proposal, black leaders in the North opposed it too, and congressional leaders did not support it.
So, by mid summer of 1862, he then decided to issue an executive order freeing all slaves in states not controlled by the Union.
But he listened to Secretary of State Seward’s warning not to issue such an order out of weakness. Seward urged him to wait for a Union military victory to do so. Thus, he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation following the Union 1862 September 1862 military victory at Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, MY.
A Second War Aim Jan. 1, 1863
Thus, President Lincoln announced a second war aim, that is the end of slavery in the entire nation.