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Summary Of If Lincoln Had Not Free The Slaves

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“If Lincoln Had Not Freed The Slaves” In the article “If Lincoln Had Not Freed The Slaves” written by Tom Wicker, he puts forth many opinions on Lincoln and his participation on freeing the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was first given on September 22, 1862 proposing a date for freedom for more than three million slaves in the United States. Tom Wicker asks and answers the question of “What would have happened if Lincoln had not freed the slaves and there was never an Emancipation Proclamation issued?” Three points worth elaborating on are the racial segregation of blacks, Lincoln’s opinion on the war, and the decision made by Lincoln on when to release the Emancipation Proclamation.

The racial …show more content…

Lincoln always wanted to win the war at hand. In the article it is stated,”If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it..” This basically states that Lincoln would do pretty much anything to save the Union and eventually win the war. Lincoln says that he would do anything to help the cause at hand. Apparently Lincoln thought that attempting to freeing the slaves would have helped the war effort. Helping the war effort is one thing but you must be devoted and passionate about the topic of freeing mistreated slaves. In my opinion Lincoln did have that passion to some extent, but I do believe that winning the war was more important to him than freeing the slaves. It is stated in the article that LIncoln believed “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.” This basically means that Abraham Lincoln’s main goal was to save the Union and not to fully free the slaves. This does not fully mean that the freeing of the slaves wasn’t something that Lincoln wanted to get rid of but just a supporting factor to diminish later in history.Lincoln also believed that he would do less if he decided that what he was doing was hurting the cause and do more if he decided that what he was doing was helping the cause. This in my opinion was somewhat of a smart move to make. There …show more content…

Many battles being presented as well as defeats ultimately delayed the proclamation on being released. The timing on releasing the proclamation had to be perfect. I believe that the delays that presented themselves were necessary to the perfect window of time on releasing the Emancipation Proclamation to the public. Lincoln also chose to read to the Cabinet the first draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, his mind was made up but many people thought that the proclamation may come off to be a cry of distress if issued. The proclamation in my opinion was no way a cry of distress but a way to show some sort of light to the cruel treatment of black slaves and that it should be stopped. Even if it was just a small step to complete freedom for all, it was the right step on making the country unified as whole. The waiting did eventually pay off though, after all the waiting and hesitation, the proclamation was issued. The timing was made useful, if not released when it was, the fatal diplomatic act would have not been prevented for the Union. I believe that if the Emancipation Proclamation was released any other time than when it was, the result may have been quite different. The interesting fact is not only did the Emancipation Proclamation give hope to black society, bringing in 180,000 black troops by the end of 1865, but it

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This proclamation allowed African American Soldiers to enlist in the Northern army which gave them a huge advantage. The emancipation proclamation was issued by Lincoln in 1863, which went underneath the south's ability to keep slavery and declared that all southern slaves were now free. After this was pointed into action the union army grew to contain 10% African Americans which led to the victory of the south. One more point that Current talks about is the blockade. The blockade was enforced by the union navy which blocked the southern ports and prevented the south from getting necessary supplies.

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He made it very clear that he didn’t want slavery to spread and would work to see that slavery didn’t spread. President Lincoln said if he could save the Union by keeping slavery where it already existed, he would do that. Saving the Union was his top priority. However, the South didn’t trust President Lincoln to keep his word.

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The civil war became a different war as the gleaming sun set over the bloody fields of Antietam. After the union had partially won the battle, Abraham Lincoln changed the war as he wrote one of the most controversial, and most crucial documents in American history: the Emancipation Proclamation (Dudley 166). Mr. Lincoln’s preliminary proclamation declared that on January 1, 1863, all slaves remaining in areas of the South “in rebellion would be declared then, thenceforward, and forever free” (Dudley 167). The Emancipation Proclamation paved the way to the abolition of slavery, and is by far one of the most important accomplishments made in history.

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’s Thesis was centered around the idea that Lincoln viewed emancipation as “a goal to be achieved through prudential means, so that worthwhile consequences might result.” He argued that every gradual step Lincoln took towards the abolition of slavery was done to “balance the integrity of ends with the integrity of means,” to accomplish this while still placing the constitution above all of his personal opinions. Guelzo then presented and answered four questions that he believed arose as a result of his prudence argument; why is the language of the Proclamation bland, did the Proclamation actually do anything, did the slaves free themselves, and finally did Lincoln issue the Proclamation to only to prevent European intervention or inflate Union morale? In response to the first, Guelzo makes the point that the Proclamation was a legal document, and that “every syllable was liable to… legal

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Abraham Lincoln did not believe that slavery should be abolished as soon as possible; he rather believed that slavery should be restricted and no longer extend to other states (or territories) in the Union that don’t already have slavery. This specific belief made him a free-soiler; he was not an abolitionist. He also believed that the very mention of spreading slavery was the reason for the conflicts within the Union in the first place; at the Jonesboro Joint Debate, he replied to his opponent then-senator Stephen Douglas that “we have generally had comparative peace upon the slavery question” until it was “excited by the effort to spread it into new territory” (7). He later goes on to blaming violent conflicts like the Mexican War on the question of spreading slavery: He says that “Whenever there has been an effort to spread it there has been agitation and resistance” (7).

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On September 2nd, 1862, Abraham Lincoln famously signed the Emancipation Proclamation. After that, there’s been much debate on whether Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation truly played a role in freeing the slaves with many arguments opposing or favoring this issue. In Vincent Harding’s essay, The Blood-red Ironies of God, Harding argues in his thesis that Lincoln did not help to emancipate the slaves but that rather the slaves “self-emancipated” themselves through the war. On the opposition, Allen C Guelzo ’s essay, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America, argues in favor of the Emancipation Proclamation and Guelzo acknowledges Lincoln for the abolishment of slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Between the start of the Civil War and the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, opinions about emancipation took a turn for the better. During the Civil War, President Lincoln decided that the Union could use emancipation, or the freeing of slaves, as a weapon against the South and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in September of 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation, put into effect on the first of January in 1863, was a document declaring the release of slaves from the cruel chains of slavery. In an October issue from 1861, the Sacramento Bee stated that the emancipation of slaves would only worsen things, because black people and white people can never live as equals. The superior race will always rise, and the lower race will

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He showed that he did not believe one side was better than the other when it came to their actions, because it took both sides to achieve the effects. He states “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.” If you take special note of his final phrasing towards the end of the sentence, Lincoln says “... and the war came.” This shows that he did not say something along the lines of “This war was caused by the North’s lust to end slavery”, but instead, he chooses to stay passive in his choice of

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President Lincoln stated that: “if I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it,..., and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do it.”. This quote clearly shows that the freedom of slaves was not his concern and unnecessary if it did not help the Union; as the result, slavery still exists if there is no war. Free slave from bondage should be a Great Emancipator’s primary goal and he will do his best to achieve it no matter what, but president Lincoln’s thought differed from that because all he cares was the Union. Although he had many times admitting himself an anti-slavery but his words and thoughts obviously prove that he is

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As Lincoln had hoped, the Proclamation turned foreign perspective in favor of the Union by gaining the support of anti-slavery countries. The last contribution the supposed emancipation of slaves made to the North was that the slaves in the North were in fact not emancipated at all. The crucial wording of the proclamation indicated that only slaves residing in rebellious states would be freed from that day forth. Slaveholding border states such as Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware were exempted from surrendering their human property. These slaves, who were living on the “good” side of the U.S., would be required to wait until April 8, 1864, the passing of the 13th Amendment.

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On paragraph 7 It says “However, Lincoln continues, God may want the war to continue until all the wealth earned from 250 years of slavery is drained. And he may want the war to continue until every drop of blood drawn from an enslaved person is paid for with a drop of soldier’s blood. Even if this is true, Lincoln says, God is still as just and righteous as he’s ever been. Lincoln then concludes with a call to peace.” Lincoln just wanted peace for everyone.

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It had been 3 years of the war between the south and the north. Fighting about slavery. The proclamation declared that “all persons held as slaves within rebellious states” This document freed three million slaves in all southern states. It also freed 27 of the states in the union.

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In fact he said that if he could save the Union without freeing any slaves he would do it. Lincoln did believe that all men (including black men) should have the right to improve their condition in society and to get paid for their labor. However, he did not believe that black men could

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Lincoln knew that this sacrifice was important to the survival of the nation. And he would not let it be in vain. Lincoln would fight for the freedom of slaves through this war. The men of Gettysburg gave their lives for this ideal and Lincoln would free all slaves for that sacrifice. This was accomplished through the eventual surrender of the

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Somebody once remarked, “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent” (“Abraham Lincoln Quotes"). At the initial view, the Civil War was going to be won by the South. Nonetheless, all that changed when Abraham Lincoln constructed the Emancipation Proclamation because it did not solely free slaves, it further altered antiquity for the salutary and assisted the North in the war, which led to their triumph. The Emancipation Proclamation was Abraham Lincoln’s greatest achievement as president.

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