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Abraham Lincoln
Background
• Humble Origins: born in a log cabin on a small
backcountry farm in Kentucky – family moved to
Indiana, Illinois..
• No formal education: taught to read and write by
his mother (father illiterate); then self-taught
• Worked at a variety of jobs: rafting, carpentry,
butcher, forestry, store-keeper, rail-splitting,
postmaster, land surveyor…self educated Lawyer
• “Self-made man” (Jackson, Johnson)
• Regarded by friends and family as
compassionate, tolerant, rational, a born storyteller
Early Politics
• Joined Whigs - from an admiration of Henry
Clay. Living in the backcountry he felt the need
for what the Whigs advocated:
– Internal Improvements
– National Bank / BUS
– Protective Tariffs (for a balanced economy)
Early Politics
• Opposed Jacksonian Democracy because it was
against all three of these
• Also felt that Jacksonian Democracy was too
associated with the “unbridled passions” of the
masses, and promoted “social disorder” and
“lawless mobocracy”
• He preferred rational solutions, “cold, calculating,
unimpassioned reason”
• Deeply admired Jefferson: said that the Dec. of
Indep., with its emphasis on equality, freedom,
pursuit of happiness, influenced all his political
beliefs
Early Politics
• Admired Webster and supported his arguments
about the permanence and primacy of the Union
• Believed people should not be doctrinaires, but
should be flexible and open to trying different
solutions…..should be pragmatic
• Elected to the Illinois State Legislature (18361841)
• His views on slavery emerged during this period
Views on Slavery
• Morally wrong: “a monstrous injustice”
• Hypocritical for a country founded on the principle of
freedom
• But a State’s Right under the Constitution
• Important thing was to stop expansion of slavery to
the new territories; favored Free Soil (not Popular
Sovereignty)
• It would die out in the South as the soil became
exhausted / eroded from over production of Cotton
• If Cotton Planters could not move West with their
slaves, slaves would be freed, voluntarily, gradually
Views on Slavery
• Meanwhile, it was important not to antagonize the
southern slave states by constant criticism (was
concerned about the harshness of the Abolitionist
movement) - to prevent a break down of the Union
• After Emancipation slaves should be encouraged to
voluntarily re-colonize in Africa (Lundy)
• Southerners, and Northerners, would then not have
to worry about the revenge factor, or the issue of
equal rights, or competition for jobs – which would
make emancipation more acceptable
• In Africa, formers slaves could live with dignity,
governing themselves (but re-colonization not
popular with freed-Slaves)
• Historians comment on an impractical solution
proposed by a practical, pragmatic man
Views on Slavery
• Slaves could never be the moral, intellectual or
social equals of white people – “my own feelings
will not admit of this, nor will those of the
majority of whites.” Free but not equal.
House of Reps.
• Rep. Illinois in Hse. of Reps in Fed Govt. from
1847-1849 (promised to step down after one
term)
• Best remembered for
– “Spotty Lincoln”: questioned Polk’s interpretation of
the origins of the Mexican American War
– Failed attempt to get support for a bill to ban slavery
in D.C.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Left politics in 1849: back to his law practice: had
no intention of re-entering politics
• So shocked by the K-N act of 1854 (left me
“thunderstruck and astounded”) that he changed
his mind: outraged that slavery above the line 36’
30’ was now a possibility again
• Ran for Illinois Senate but lost to Democratic
candidate
• Decided in 1856 to join the Republican Party
(founded in 1854) – Whig party was in decline
Dred Scott, 1857
• Outraged by this “erroneous decision”
• Wrong to define slaves as property: and to
impose slavery on the territories
• All men should be free, though not equal; should
have freedom to pursue “life, liberty, happiness.”
Illinois Senate (federal) Election,
1858
• Nominated by Rep party to oppose Douglas; in his
acceptance speech he said that:
– "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe
this government cannot endure permanently half slave
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all
the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will…place it
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in
the course of ultimate extinction: or its advocates will put
it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all states, old
as well as new – North as well as South”
House Divided Speech
• To the South, his speech sounded very radical
and extreme. Considered it as a pledge on behalf
of the Republican party to make war upon the
institution in the States where it now exists
• He came to regret the speech; tried to blunt its
impact – insisted that he did not favor conflict…
“this was only a prediction… perhaps a foolish
one.”
• But South never forgot, esp. during the
Presidential election of 1860 and afterwards; saw
it as evidence that Lincoln and Republicans
intended abolishing Slavery by force if necessary if
they took over the Federal Govt.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Lincoln forced Douglas to admit that he still
favored Popular Sovereignty and dismissed the
Dred Scott decision – Freeport Doctrine
• Douglas accused Lincoln of favoring equality after
Emancipation: said Lincoln favored intermarriage,
“mongrelization” of the Anglo-Saxon race… would
lead to loss of jobs for whites
• Lincoln denied this with a strong statement…..
(next slide)
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• “I have not, nor ever have been, in favor of
bringing about in any way the social and political
equality of the white and black races. I am not nor
ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors
of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office,
nor to intermarry with white people…There is a
physical difference between the white and black
races which I believe will forever forbid the two
races living together on terms of social and
political equality. And in as much as they cannot
so live, while they do remain together there must
be the position of superior and inferior, and I as
much as any other man am in favor of having the
superior position assigned to the white race.”
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• These words were later used by those who
accused him of being a racist (inc. Lerone
Bennett Jr.)
• Lost the Senate seat but won the Presidency in
1860 – Douglas won but lost the Presidency
• Lincoln won name recognition: Southern
Democrats turned away from Douglas (Popular
Sovereignty, Freeport Doctrine, denial of Dred
Scott)
Presidential Election of 1860
• Sectional President – no electoral college votes
from the South
• Minority President – won only 40% of popular
vote
• Tried to persuade South during and after the
election that he would not interfere with Slavery
there: but they remembered the House Divided
speech and did not trust him (Rep Pres, Rep
Congress by end of year…)
• South Carolina initiated Secession by 7 states (4
more after events at Fort Sumter) after his victory
Civil War
• From the outset he repeatedly emphasized that the
war was being waged to save the Union - primary
motive
• It was not a war to free slaves. He would crush the
rebellion, and restore national authority in the South
and leave slavery intact
• He would continue to support anti expansion /
containment
• This position was consistent with his previous views:
he was also aware, if he might have been remotely
contemplating Emancipation, of the need to keep the
Border States and Butternut regions on the side of the
Union – and keep the support of the War Democrats
Civil War
• Indirectly the war was about Emancipation, in the
long term: preserving the Union would mean ending
slavery, by preventing it from expanding. Allowing
secession would lead to its expansion and survival
• Emancipation, therefore, did not need to be stated
as a war aim
Civil War
• Lincoln did not see the war as a conflict between
two nations – he saw it as a rebellion or insurrection.
• He never recognized southern secession or the
Confederacy
• To him the insurrection was the work of individuals,
not of an organized government, so in his views the
South remained in the Union, fully entitled to all
protections guaranteed by the Constitution
• This included ownership of slaves
• Punishment for participation in the rebellion could
be inflicted on traitorous individuals, not on their
States
• When victory came to the Union cause, the
Southern states would be, as they always had been,
equal to all others
Civil War
• Lincoln considered the prosecution of the war
primarily a function of the Chief Executive /
Commander in Chief for which he might need to
take on Legislative powers; he would carry out
these duties with minimal interference from
Congress
• He might have to, he felt, dispense with the
Constitutional niceties protecting individual rights.
• Showed himself to be tough minded and decisive:
without consultation with Congress he
– Introduced a Blockade
– extended the period of volunteer enlistment
from 90 days to 3 years
– Expanded army and navy
– Purchased arms and supplies
– Suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus: allowed
military authorities the power to make
summary arrests, and imprisonment without
trial
Civil War
• Felt that Congress could approve retroactively,
which it did
• was much criticized, for violating civil liberties,
curtailment of the freedom of speech and of the
press, “arbitrary arrests”
• But the majority of those arrested were spies,
smugglers, blockade-runners – a minority were
political prisoners, jailed for expressing their beliefs.
• But “devotion to civil liberties was not the primary
concern of his administration”
Civil War
 Frustrated with indecisive Generals - Scott,
McClellan – studied strategy and managed the war
himself….
 Pressure from the Radical Republicans – Stevens,
Sumner – to declare Emancipation, but he refused
• Also persisted with his views on non-equality and
re-colonization. In 1862, he told a group of African
American leaders:
– “You and we are different races. We have between us a
broader distance that exists almost between any other
two races…This physical difference is a great
disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffers very
greatly….by living among us, while ours suffers from your
presence. In a word we suffer on each side…It is better
for us both, therefore, to be separated..
Emancipation
• From mid 1862, there is evidence of a shift in his
attitude – maybe because in discussions with
leaders of the loyal border states he realized that
voluntary, gradual Emancipation was just not
realistic
• Even these loyal border states were totally
opposed to it….. It might have to be mandatory.
• He began to think that he had the right to
Emancipate by presidential decree – he had the
power to emancipate the slaves of a military
opponent, under his war powers, regardless of
what the Constitution said.
Emancipation
• Losses in the War also influenced his change of
mind
• McClellan’s defeat in the Peninsular War,
warnings about how demoralized soldiers were,
and the near mutinous state of some of the
officers, the dwindling trickle of volunteers for the
army, a flow that several Nth governors told him
could not be increased so long as he persisted in
fighting a war that would leave slavery intact.
• Also, the growing chorus of antislavery opinion in
the North (Abolitionists, Radical Republicans)
began to effect him
• Another factor may have been to forestall
threatened moves by Britain and France towards
recognizing the Confederacy
Emancipation
• On July 13, 1862 he informed his cabinet of his
decision; he told them that he was going to
introduce Emancipation but “not as a measure that
was just or right…but as a fit and necessary military
measure.”
• He would do so on Jan 1st 1863: but the Cabinet
advised him to announce it after a victory, so that it
would not seem like the last measure of an
exhausted government
• He was still opposed to enlisting African Americans
in the Union armies (not a reason for
Emancipation) – this might cause dissatisfaction in
the army, with white soldiers reluctant to fight side
by side with black, and do more harm than good.
Emancipation
• That Emancipation was a last resort and primarily
for military and political reasons, he expressed in
his famous reply to Horace Greely editor of the New
York Tribune (he had criticized Lincoln for not
introducing Emancipation)
– "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,
and it is not either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could
save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do so:
and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it:
and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others
alone, I would do that. What I do about Slavery and the
colored race, I do because it helps to save the Union; and
what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would
help to save the Union."
Emancipation
• Antietam provided the necessary victory (though
not an overwhelming one)
• The Proclamation freed all persons held as slaves
within any state or part of a state still in rebellion
• It was written in a routine style, with no reference
to the barbarism of slavery, nor was morality
invoked as a reason for striking it down
• His sole announced purpose was the “object of
practically restoring the constitutional relation
between the US, and each of the states, and the
people thereof.”….heart not in it – a states right
Emancipation
• Slaves in the border states were not affected
(were not in rebellion, he had no legal right to
abolish it there - hoped he could persuade them),
nor were the slaves in the parts of the South
already captured and now under Northern control
(Emancipation took place haltingly and unevenly).
• So the Proclamation did not immediately free a
single slave – “where he could have freed them he
did not: where he could not he did”…a very
curious document…
• Lincoln felt that he only had the Constitutional
power, under his war powers, to free slaves in the
places still at war with the Union
Emancipation
• The Proclamation changed the nature of the war had been a war to secure the Union: now it was
also a moral crusade against slavery in the South.
• Strengthened the moral cause of the Union at
home and abroad.
• And now that the war was going in favor of the Nth,
the border states and Butternut regions would not
dare join the South.
• After Emancipation thousands of freed slaves left
the plantations and joined the Union armies, which
Lincoln now accepted
Emancipation
• Abroad, the Proclamation put an end to any notion
that Britain or other countries might have of
intervening on the side of the South.
• Nth public opinion favored the Proclamation,
though many Democrats naturally disapproved.
Some extreme abolitionists felt he had not gone
far enough
• Lincoln was re-elected in 1864. Took it as a
mandate of support for Emancipation
• He cooperated with Congress to turn it into an
Amendment freeing all slaves - 13th, in 1865 – to
safeguard it and make it very difficult to overturn
it…the Amendment, not the Emancipation
Proclamation, is the epic event….but the Amend
evolved from the Proc…
Emancipation
• By now he had abandoned the idea of recolonization as unrealistic
• Towards the end of the war he also began to feel
that intelligent / educated freed slaves and esp.
those who had served in the military forces, and
owned property, should have the vote (equality?)
• Showed that his views were evolving – might have
evolved even further if he had lived (Assassinated
by John Wilkes Booth, April 15, 1865)
• “Had Lincoln lived to the end of his second
administration, he would have been forced to accept
the presence of the Negro in his country as a
permanent fact: and, given his flexibility, he would
doubtless have discovered a more constructive
policy than colonization.” Kenneth Stampp
• Began his version of Reconstruction – opposed
by Republicans / Radicals in Congress, who
refused to accept representatives from the states
reconstructed under his plan (later notes)
Essay Questions
• Lincoln’s handling of the Civil War, his
role, his impact, leadership?
• Was he a racist?
Was Lincoln a Racist?
• Read Eric Foner’s review titled Was Abraham
Lincoln a Racist?, of the book Forced Into Glory
by Lerone Bennett
•
•
•
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• Leadership / Role in Civil War
1. Personality vs Davis
2. Managing war – military campaigns,
without good generals, then with Grant
3. Managing Union – dissent etc: Border
and Butternut – decisiveness, set aside
Constitution
4. Emancipation – changed nature of war
when necessary…. Impact of Proclamation
•
•
•
•
• Racism?
1. his racist views – quotes, speeches….Liberia
2. Racism common during that period – an
explanation, not an excuse
3. Lerone Bennett’s charges – Lincoln was pro
slave, exaggerations by pro and anti Lincoln
writers…explain Lincoln’s obsessions – antiextension, union…..his evolution, views of last
three months..
4. Lincoln’s achievements – Eman, 13th Amend –
foundation of 14, 15 Amends, and Second
Recon / Civil Rights of 60s and
achievements…..what he made possible