Lincoln believed that bending the Constitution was necessary to preserve the Union. During this era or period of time, congress was not in session so Lincoln had to do some things by himself. In August, 1862 Lincoln wrote a letter to Horace Greeley, an editor of the New York Tribune, who published an open letter insisting President Lincoln free the slaves immediately. In Lincoln’s reply he wrote “If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could do it by freeing some nd leaving others alone, I would also so that” (Voices of America, p. 38).
Lincoln had one thing at his mind during that time and that was to save the union. Also, Lincoln, took this upon himself to raise an army that consisted with about 70,000 men. Afterwards, Congress had approved of this very action that Lincoln had taken. However, as time went on violations had occurred. Lincoln had violated the constitutional liberties. One of the things he had violated was the suspension of several newspapers and the arrest of their editors on grounds that they were obstructing the war effort.
Another thing that was involved in the suspension of this is the instituted supervised voting in the border states, making voters march between two lines of armed troops. Abraham Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union due to many reasons, such as by doing this, it can lead to a bigger and more advanced country. In Lincoln’s inaugural speech he says the following: *”This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their ‘constitutional’ right of amending it or their ‘revolutionary’ right o dismember or overthrow it”. Lincoln, 2)
From this speech, it proves that Lincoln wanted our country to be as great as it could possibly be. If Abraham Lincoln, had not taken this action and preserved the Union, then America would not be America today. If something would have happened to the Union, then America, in present time would be much smaller. Lincoln focused his political stance regarding slavery on the prevention of its spread into the territories. During this time, many acts were introduced such as the Confiscation Act of 1681, which were acts passed by Congress in the United States of America during the time of the Civil War.
The purpose of this act was to free all the slaves held by the Confederate Forces in the South. “The confiscation legislation was amended and revised with the final language written by Ohio Congressman John A. Bingham. Without using the word “slave,” the new law said that slaves forced to work for the Confederate war effort should be entitled to freedom”, according to (MrLincolnandfreedom. org, 4) However, after Lincoln had became president, he resisted these laws by the government because he felt as if it pushed the Union towards abolition, which was not good.
The reason why Abraham Lincoln had resisted these laws was because he felt as if these laws might have had a severely negative effect on the politics and it could possibly affect it in a way that would not help or benefit the United States in any way. Biographer Robert Morse wrote that “thousands of slaves were doing the work of laborers and servants, and rendering all the whites of the Southern army available for fighting. The handicap was so severe and obvious, that it immediately provoked the introduction of a bill freeing slaves belonging to rebels and used for carrying on the war. Morse)
In this quote written by an educated biographer, they explain how the Northern armies ran against slavery immediately. Another thing that was also occurring during this time was that the slave owners did not voluntarily free their slaves, but however many blacks took advantage of the Emancipation Proclamation to leave their owners and to join the Union Army to support those who had upheld their freedom. According to a book written by an expert on Abraham Lincoln, it states, “In late July 1682 he had assembled his cabinet and read a remarkable document to them. He called it the Emancipation Proclamation.
In it, he proposed to free all the slaves in the seceded states. Lincoln’s position had always been that slavery must come to an end. ” (Steele, pg 105) In this quote it explains how Lincoln never wanted slavery to exist from the start and how it must end. “And now by introducing the Proclamation it helped to fulfill his wishes. ” (Steele, pg 105) The Emancipation Proclamation was a very important document during this time period started by Abraham Lincoln, and it still remains very significant during this time period, as many people are still thankful for this document.
The importance of the Emancipation Proclamation was that it led to the TOTAL abolition of slavery in the United States, it was signed on September 22, 1862. It took Abraham Lincoln quite a while to try to convince everyone such as his advisors, who did not initially support this plan he had. According to cicvilwar. org they say “It was only Lincoln’s firm commitment to the necessity and justice of the Proclamation, along with the victory at Antietam, which finally persuaded his cabinet members to support him. (civilwar. org, 5) As you can see from this quote, it hows the reader how Lincoln had been committed into getting justice and freedom for those of color. He was always determined from the start.
In his Peoria speech that he made on October 16, 1854, it stated *”If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that “all men are created equal;” and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another. (Lincoln, 2) (See Enclosure 1 for rest of the Paranoia Speech). During this part Lincoln argues that the slaves were people, not animals, and consequently possessed certain natural rights. Also, along with the Emancipation Proclamation, another additional thing that it had helped with was preserving the Union. It proved to be very beneficial however there are always different opinions on things and how people feel towards things since no one is the same person.
When the document had been established, not everyone had supported it, some people just ignored it and did not really care as much for this document, they were the ones who felt like it would not help or benefit America in any way. While others, had felt like it might do something. Unfortunately, for majority of the slaves, as most as 90%+ were illiterate, meaning they were nable to read or write, so news of the Emancipation Proclamation had to be reached to them by word, meaning people who knew how to read had to be verbally tell and explain to the slaves what this document had meant and how it might benefit them.
So, when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued about 800,000 of them, according to studynotes. org should have been freed by the declaration, but none of those 800,000 people had gained immediate freedom. Many of the owners of the slaves did not really bother to free their slaves. Due to this, most slaves decided to join the Union.
