Lincoln was smart enough to recognize at this point in August of 1862 that saving the Union without addressing slavery was impossible. He never would have thought about emancipation solely in terms of winning the war, because emancipation required a complete change in the government's thinking vis a vis black citizenship and the complete dismantling of slavery (whereas the federal government had previously tolerated, sometimes even promoted, slavery). And the evidence shows that Lincoln thought intently about these questions and became more serious about integrating blacks into American society as time went on.
A couple of days ago I spent an hour crafting a lengthy reply to this well crafted, articulate, post. And it was eaten by the Paradox log-out error monster. Grrr, soooo tired of that. But since the topic is still on the table, I’ll try again.
Whatever else, Lincoln was a political genius. Ultimately, he wanted an end to the institution of slavery, as do all right-thinking people. But he was rather pragmatic about his approach to the problem; brilliant, even. Too bad he did not get to finish what he started because I believe his end-result would have been far different than the one we actually got.
No one altered the power of the executive branch of the US government more than Lincoln did. Lincoln did things that were down-right unconstitutional but were so effective they were permitted and repeated by his successors.
Lincoln was the living embodiment of the phrase 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'. I enjoyed Gore Vidal’s portrait of the man's ability to build coalitions and let others think they were in charge while he held the reins firmly in his hand. He never showed the whip until it was absolutely necessary, and never without success. His personal life, his struggles with depression and madness, are legendary. The incredibly powerful asset that was his wife, whom he married for political reasons at the cost of his own happiness, was a total loon but helped get him the office he sought.
It is highly regrettable that he was assassinated before he had a chance to end the war on his terms. Lincoln's goal was to reunite North and South as brothers returning to the same family. The less animosity and acrimony, the more successful the peace would be; particularly for the newly freed slaves who refused his offer to return them to Africa.
Conveniently, (at least for Stanton’s dreams of post-war America), Lincoln’s bodyguard, John Parker, leaves his post to go watch ‘My American Cousin’ that fateful night at Ford’s Theater. At intermission, Parker goes to the Star Saloon next door. John Wilkes Boothe, also have a pre-assassination cocktail at Star Saloon, leaves when Parker arrives and walks into Ford’s Theater where he shoots Lincoln in the back of the head before uttering ‘Sic Semper Tyrannus’. (Draw your own conclusions about Parker’s actions. Parker’s compatriots and Mrs. Lincoln both blamed the man for Lincoln’s death; and despite his failure he was kept on the payroll for years. And the manhunt and death of Boothe has begged questions that have gone unanswered for years, but we aren't likely to answer those questions here.)
The War Department in general, and Stanton in particular, wanted peace imposed on the South in the harshest terms possible: military occupation, economic profiteering, humiliation and degradation. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Why? Owning slaves? Or payback for the Union blood spilled during the war? Very much the latter; for if ‘all men are created equal’ is the credo of the Union Army, explain to me Sherman’s “Final Solution to the Indian Problem” as he unleashed Sheridan’s campaign of absolute genocide on the Plains Indians for corporate gain after the war was concluded.
Lincoln’s dream of a peaceful reunion died that night at Ford’s Theater; the great “what might have been” of peaceful coexistence died with him. Instead, you have a hundred years of Segregation in both the North and the South, and Strange Fruit swinging from the trees in almost every state of the Union. My contention throughout is that if Lincoln had lived, and the reconciliation between the North and the South had been amicable and the re-uniting of brothers as Uncle Abe intended, the plight of blacks in America would have been a vastly different tale than the one that unfolded because of the hate-filled rage unleashed by Reconstruction.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, as has been said many times before. The question is when are we going to stop picking at the scab and let the wound heal?
