Abraham Lincoln's Changes During The Civil War

In the beginning, when the Civil War started back in 1861, Abraham Lincoln only wanted to keep the Union intact. His intentions and beliefs were to seek those states that had withdrawn from the Union and bring them back to their roots. Lincoln’s principle at the start of the war was that the Confederate states had no right to withdraw from the Union. He viewed their actions as extremely disloyal even traitorous, and believed that the Union had the justification to attempt to bring the Confederacy back where it belonged, as part of the Nation. As the Civil War raged on, Lincoln’s views and ideals drastically changed. Increasing pressure from the Confederacy’s successful war tactics and England’s possible backing, forced Lincoln to take a different

The change Lincoln spoke of needed to be drastic and something that would breathe life back into the Union forces and Northern beliefs. It is important to note that not all Northerners supported the war efforts. Some did not agree at all with the war, some white northerners, especially newer immigrants in the cities. They believed that they were being forced to fight to end slavery. They also worried that they would have to compete with free African Americans for jobs. Regardless of the consensus of opinions, in 1862, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a strategic bill that would prove to benefit the Union forces and war strategy greatly. Lincoln was previously extremely cautious about making the abolition of slavery a goal of the war, mainly due to the fact that he did not want to do anything he thought might cause states to shift their loyalty to the Confederacy. He worried that the resources from the border-states in his eyes might allow the south to turn the tide of the war more than it already had. At this point the Confederacy already had the upper hand, stronger morale and momentum on their side. Despite this, the Emancipation Proclamation was initiated in 1863 and liberated the slaves in the confederacy. Lincoln recognized that by getting rid of or terminating slavery, it would drastically improve his chances to with the Civil War. Initially, it would stop the European backing for the Confederacy. If the war itself was reclassified as a war against oppression instead of its initial reasoning, European countries could no longer back and support the Confederacy in good cognizant. Similarly, slaves would be motivated to fight back against the south by rebelling, escaping and signing up for the Union army. Lincoln’s top abolitionist consultants predicted that African Americans would join the Union army by the masses, if the war objective was changed and geared towards freedom