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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nihil who wrote (38707)	6/3/1999 1:51:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Nihil, you have an interesting view of history that is at odds with contemporaneous accounts. For example, you said Lincoln did not want to free the slaves, but his hands were forced by Northern Commanders who put escaped slaves to work and effectively freed them. African-American troops were needed to win the war, at first a trickle, and then many were recruited. Abolitionists (still a minority) pushed Lincoln in emancipation. Note that the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in territory in rebellion against the Union (i.e. where the Union writ didn't run). In point of fact, Union General Hunter had issued an emancipation edict of his own which Lincoln had abrogated two months prior to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Similarly, General Fremont issued a proclamation edict in Missouri, but once again Lincoln effectively vetoed it. On July 8, 1862 Gen. McClellan handed Lincoln a note on his views of the proper conduct of the war. In it, McClellan opined that "Neither confiscation of property ... [n]or forcible abolition of slavery should be contemplated for a moment .... Military power should not be allowed to interfere with relations of servitude... A declaration of radical views, especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies." [Geo. B. McClellan, McClellan's Own Story]. Thus, it is clear that Lincoln did not issue the Proclamation in response to his generals. What, then was the motivation? On July 12 Lincoln met with leaders of the border states in which he urged them to accept compensated emancipation. They rejected the proposal, which lead Lincoln to cease striving for compromise on the issue. On July 13 Lincoln told Seward and Welles of his intention to issue the Proclamation. According to Gideon Welles, Lincoln said that the emancipation was a military necessity because the slaves served as a source of economic strength to the rebels. In point of fact, Lincoln was performing a balancing act. On the one hand he was being pushed by the Abolitionists, and on the other he was was cognizant of the threat posed by both the inaction of the border states and the political threat posed by McClellan and Democratic Unionists who wanted nothing to do with freeing the slaves. In point of fact, opposition to the Proclamation was so great that dozens of anti-black riots broke out in Northern cities. When the matter of slavery came to a vote 96% of Democrats voted in opposition to a war article that would have prohibited return of fugitive slaves, provide emancipation in the District of Columbia, prohibit slavery in the territories, and the confiscation act. My take on this is that opposition could not be mollified by delaying the emancipation, and it was not the Abolitionists who forced the issue, but the failure of the Democrats and the border states to compromise which finally convinced Lincoln that he had nothing to lose by issuing the Proclamation. Nihil, you have made a number of points which I believe are extremely naive, and it would take an entire tome to refute them in detail. The issues I raised concerning the Emancipation Proclamation just skim the surface. The take home lesson is that Lincoln was always a believer in abolition, but he believed that compromise was more important to hold his coalition together. When it became clear that there was no coalition, his hand was freed for the action he had wanted to take. Only the counsel of Sumner stayed his hand; Sumner advised Lincoln not to issue the Proclamation until a Union victory had been achieved. Thus, the Proclamation was not issued until September. TTFN, CTC