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 story-teller

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 (1836-1841)

• 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. Bennett)

• 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 re-

colonization 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

• 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 – anti-extension, 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