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Why Did Lincoln Take So Long?

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Myth and fact have always been at odds. Time and time again myth has been misrepresented as fact. To such an extent it has been ingrained so deeply within the cultural mind, people cease to question its feasibility. In the Emancipation Proclamation speech Lincoln declared more than three million slaves in the rebel states of the Confederacy free. The question is, why did Lincoln take so long? It took Lincoln two years to free the slaves yet he claimed to be anti-slavery. As Julius Lester said, “His pen was sitting on his desk the whole time.” In reality, Lincoln’s intentions were to bring the restoration of the Union and making the American economy safe for whites, not concerning the rights of the blacks. The Proclamation is dull and turgid. …show more content…

Why, in the most important document he ever wrote, does Lincoln sound like a pettifogger, drafting an almost incomprehensible legal document? And why did it take him two years to move towards ending slavery? In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no incli­nation to do so.” But by mid-1862, however, Lincoln concluded that, as commander in chief, he did have the power to take slaves away from states in rebellion. Thus came the Emancipation Proc­la­mation to states in the Confederacy not occupied by federal forces, since under the Constitution he could only free slaves in places that claimed to be “outside” the United

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