Lincoln and Slavery

Lincoln and Slavery

President Lincoln’s thoughts on slavery is one of the most important issues in American history. Lincoln was against slavery although he never publically made it known, he was passionate about ending slavery throughout the United States. Lincoln wanted to bring slavery to an end by stopping any expansion into any US territories. With that being said, he proposed a compensated emancipation during his early years as President. During the 1850s, Lincoln was often verbally attacked politically about being an abolitionist. He never thought of himself as a abolitionist. In 1864, during his election he actually never said he wanted to end slavery in the U.S. until he made his platform, using the 13th Amendment. During the Civil War he used his power as President to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln’s proclamation states, “All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”, but exempted border states and those areas of slaves states already under the Unions control.(www.emancipationproclamation.org) You could effectively argue that without Abraham Lincoln there would not have been a Civil War. If Douglass would have won instead of Lincoln, he would have driven through some sort of proportional voting law so that the South would have never faced the threat of being the minority in the Senate and Congress. That was their greatest fear, ironic since they feared being a minority power while holding power over minorities. President Lincoln, was the one who wanted the war. The majority of Northern power brokers were content to let the Confederates secede, many of them confident that they could make money on the deal. Lincoln insisted that the Union must be preserved and thus the War.
In my conclusion, President Lincoln was a great leader and man. He made every man free under the constitution. The...