The Great Emancipator
According to a survey taken on factmonster.com America has labeled Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents. As most of us learn in our primary education Lincoln is responsible for freeing the slaves. Celebrated as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a backer of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it is also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him. Lincoln really wasn't opposed to slavery, he did not believe blacks should vote or serve on juries, and he thought blacks should be colonized in other countries. With the societal conditions of the time any president elected by popular vote would have taken the same actions as Lincoln did towards the emancipation of blacks. Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the son of Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln, pioneer farmers. At the age of two he was taken by his parents to nearby Knob Creek, and at eight to Spencer County, Indiana. The following year his mother died.
"The enterprise is a difficult one," he acknowledged,"Where there is a will there is a way," and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. The amendment was passed after Lincoln's reelection, when he made use of all the powers of his office to ensure its success in the House of Representatives in January 31, 1865(Brooks,263-264). In 1831, after moving with his family to Macon County, Illinois, he struck out on his own, taking cargo on a flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana where he stayed for a short time. In 1819 his father married Sarah Bush Johnston, a kindly widow, who soon gained the boy's affection. Meeting Douglas in a series of debates, he challenged his opponent in effect to explain how he could reconcile his principles of popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. Between late August and mid-October, 1858, Lincoln and Douglas traveled together around the state to confront each other in seven historic debates. In 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, the daughter of a prominent Kentucky banker. Racial separation, Lincoln went on to say, "must be effected by colonization" of the country's blacks to a foreign land. A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. President Lincoln immediately canceled the order. He again proved how close he was to the radicals by endorsing a limited black franchise. Lincoln states:"I do not wish to be misunderstood upon this subject of slavery in this country. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause"(Brooks,307) Advised to await some federal victory, he did not make his proclamation public until September 22, following the Battle of Antietam, when he announced that all slaves in areas still in rebellion within 100 days would be "then, thenceforward, and forever, free. Because the Southern states no longer sent representatives to Washington, abolitionists and radical Republicans wielded exceptional power in Congress, which responded to Lincoln's cancellation of Framont's order by passing, on August 6, 1861, the Confiscation Act. Lincoln campaigned for the newly founded Republican Party in 1856, and in 1858 he became its senatorial candidate against Douglas.
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