Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for Union and Emancipation

DBQ Abraham capital of Nebraska and the Struggle for Union and Emancipation, 1861-1865 capital of Nebraska began the civil war claiming to want only to preserve the due north, and I think that saving the mating was his chief(prenominal) goal, alone I think even from the beginning, thr every(prenominal)dom played a part in the dismount of the war too and another one of his goals was to gradually get rid of slaveholding. I think as time went on, it started to have a bigger and bigger role in the war, but I simulatet think the goal of ending slavery every surpassed his goal of saving the union. He did whatsoever he thought it would take to save the union, and he also managed to end slavery while doing it.Lincoln knew that slavery was an issue from the beginning, and he wanted to stop it, but wasnt qualification an incredibly big struggle out of it at first. in March of 1862, Lincoln addressed congress (Doc A), and was encouraging congress to produce compensation to any state that was gradually abolishing slavery, which showed that he didnt want slavery anymore, but wasnt pushing too hard for it and was making it so that there wasnt any punishment for not abolishing slavery, but that there was a reward for those that were trying to abolish slavery.In a letter to Horace Greeley in rattling(a) of 1862, he said, if I could save the union without exit any slave I would do it and if I could save it by freeing all of the slaves, I would do it and if I could save it by freeing few and leaving others I would also do that. this again proves that he knew that slavery was a job and was an inevitable part of the war, but that his primary focus was to save the union, and then worry about the slavery issue later on. He was also trying to keep the Border States happy, not obviously adept focusing on freeing the slaves.He did want to gradually abolish slavery but it wasnt his chief(prenominal) goal at the time. Lincoln came to believe that the emancipation procl amation would actually attend to save the union. in that location are several different things that the abolishment of slavery could do that would be good for the union and would help keep the union together. In a speech from Lincoln to a Committee of Religious Denominations of gelt on September 13, 1862, (Doc B) Lincoln talked about how the abolition of slavery would help keep Europe from load-bearing(a) the reciprocal ohm.He also said it would be good for helping the union win the war because without the blacks laboring for the southerners, the south would have an even harder time growing food and getting the things that they need to survive, its hard adequate with a labor force helping out the south, but if all that labor was taken away(p) from them, then the south would be ruined. He also believed that emancipation would help in saving the union because it would bring in more men that were willing to fight.In a speech from Lincoln to members of the Democratic political p arty on August 26, 1863 (Doc G), Lincoln said You say you will not fight to free Negroes. around of them seem willing to fight for you, but, no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the union. So he was saying that since discolour men werent willing to fight to free Negroes he had to issue the proclamation of emancipation freeing the blacks, therefore making it so that there were more men available to fight and to fight willingly for their freedom, and for the union to conciliate together.The emancipation proclamation helped in pretty significant ways to save the union. Everyone kept thinking that Lincoln started to put his swear for slavery to end, over his desire to save the union. They all thought that his goal had changed and all he cared about was freeing the blacks when, in fact, his goal of saving the union was unceasingly there and was always greater than the slavery issue. Granted, he did want to end slavery and he did what he could to end slavery, but that wasnt his primary goal. He wanted more than anything to keep the union together.In a speech by Frederick Douglas delivered at the unveiling of the Freedmens monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln (Doc K) Douglas said, he was preeminently the white mans president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored heap to promote the welfare of the white people of this country. He is saying that no matter what, Lincoln was doing everything for the whites. He would do to the blacks whatever it took to do what is good for the white men.The white men were his top priority. Even though Lincolns goals slightly shifted from being almost entirely only wanting the security of the union to wanting slavery to end, he never lost sight of his main goal. The entire time he wanted, more than anything, to save the union. He did whatever he needed to do to save it, even if some people disagreed on if he made the best choices or not. The war was not about his desire for the abolition of slavery. It was about saving the union, and he ended up being able to abolish slavery along with saving the union.