When Referring To Abraham Lincoln During His Presidency,

He was all for to help with the abolition of slavery, however, he did not immediately emancipate the slaves. In fact in 1864 after he had already issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was not going to sign the Wade-Davis bill (148). It seemed like he had changed his mind for some reason or he was not content with how things were going down. President Lincoln revoked to sign a paper that issued a proclamation freeing the slaves in the territory they had conquered. Thoughts on President Abraham Lincoln are all over the place. Sometimes he seems genuine and some other times he has proved to be huge fake. Abraham had his difference as to why he worked around things the way he did. Douglass read President Lincoln’s deterrence to white prejudice and he concluded that he was not a true antislavery man (195) meaning he was never really there to protect the slaves from slavery he was jut putting up a front. He wanted to receive the support and votes from those that were antislavery. As the Republican he wanted the people to be represented in the decision that will be made and that eventually will affect everyone in one way or another. It’s understandable that Lincoln did not want to force the political change on the people, but it seemed like sometimes he was seen, as he wanted to change the

“I [Lincoln] think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska—and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to take it” (Fehrenbacher, Lincoln, 1832-1858 510). Lincoln was against Douglas’ principles and wanted to stand up for what he believed was right. Richard Heckman states in his book, Lincoln vs. Douglas, that “It was not until 1854 that he [Lincoln] again emerged as an active political figure” (35).

Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was the belief that the expansion of it to Free states and new territories should be ceased and that it eventually be abolished completely throughout the country. He believed simply that

He still did not think blacks should have the right to vote, hold political offices, or marry white people. He also still believed physical differences between the two races would prevent them from living together socially and politically (186). Lincoln was against whites benefitting from slave labor and did feel that blacks should be able to benefit from the fruits of their own labor. According to Dinesh D’Souza in her article “Abraham Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite, or Consummate Statesman”, he was not, however, an abolitionist. Abolitionists wanted an immediate end to slavery and believed the rights of slaves should not be compromised and that they “had a duty to defend freedom, unreservedly, and careless of the consequences” (3).

Although Abraham Lincoln, U.S. president in 1860 and 1864, would come to be remembered as the Great Emancipator, he did not begin his presidency with the goal of freeing slaves. The fact that he opposed to slavery also did not make him believe in racial equality. Before he became president, he did not yet think that blacks should be given all the civil rights such as voting or serving on juries. He simply wanted to preserve the Union and to build a strong federal government. However, people got him all wrong. The northerners voted for him in 1860 hoping that he would free the slaves and the Southern States seceded from Union because they had misunderstood Lincoln’s original intent of maintaining the Union. Faced with different points of view, Lincoln was such a talented politician that when it come to

Even though he naively believed that white men were the supreme race, he was staunchly against slavery as an institution and felt that the Declaration of Independence included black persons. In the same debate, Lincoln goes on to state that he “[does] not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the Negro should be denied every thing” (Lincoln). He believed that ‘the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ as outlined in the Declaration of Independence, applies to all men, regardless of their color, ethnicity, or culture. This may be attributed to the fact that he had not had many encounters with Black slaves until when he was in his late teens, where it had a profound impact on him (Foner 8).

“Lincoln vehemently opposed the expansion of slavery into new western territories and served as one of the most influential advocates of ‘free soil’” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Although Lincoln stayed neutral on the topic of the abolitionist movement during his campaign, he was against the expansion of slavery. Because of this, the South saw him as a threat and seven southern states seceded from the Union.

First, Abraham Lincoln wasn’t a fan of slavery. He thought that slavery should be abolished. According to document 5 it says “Abraham Lincoln, who had declared “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free…”. Lincoln also thought that it should be “Free Speech, Free Homes, and Free Territory”. He thought that blacks should have the right to talk in public and blacks should own their own homes and property. Lincoln wanted all blacks to be free and didn't want racism.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America he was frequently referred to as the ‘’The great emancipator’’ and yet although he didn’t publicly call for the emancipation of the entire life. Lincoln established his public career by declaring that he was anti-slavery against slavery’s increasing but not for announcing immediate emancipation. However, the man who began as ‘’anti-slavery’’ eventually announced the emancipation proclamation in which freed all slaves in states that were in rebellion.

The Civil War of the American had led to the major change to the American society in general and also the status of black Americans specifically. During the period prior to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had contributed not only his ideal but his passion of a nation in which every person is created equal based on the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln was elected president in 1860 and started his plan on freeing the slaves and also to put an end to the American Civil war in order to reunite the States through the Emancipation Proclamation. His ambitious of emancipating the slaves and reunite the nation are the importance factors that helps Abraham Lincoln deserves his accolade of “The Great Emancipator.”

The opposition grew steadily with no unified leader until 1854 when a politician associated with the contemporary Whig party declared his opposition to the Kansas and Nebraska Act. That man’s name was Abraham Lincoln and he based his political career around the abolition of slavery. He opposed the Kansas and Nebraska Act because it gave each state the right to choose whether to make itself a slave state or not. This countered the former ways of the Missouri Act established in 1820 which declared a line of latitude to distinguish whether a new territory would be slave free or not. His main opposition was Steven Douglas who had ratified the Kansas and Nebraska Act. Douglas saw slavery as a strictly political dilemma but Lincoln found it to be a profound moral issue as well. Lincoln stated that the act would be fine if it did not compare black men to pigs and horses with this he declared that “slavery was incompatible with America democracy.” Abraham eloquently explained himself by reasoning, “If a Negro is a man, when then my ancient faith teaches me that ‘all men are created equal,’ and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another.” Later in his Peoria speech he called for the gradual abolishment of slavery. Lincoln’s views did not get him elected on many occasions but he never stopped his conquest to have justice for all.

In 1862, thousands of enslaved African Americans headed to the Union lines as President Lincoln’s troops marched through the south, to push and fight for their rights. A common belief about the slaves was that they were accustomed to the bondage and basically, did not mind that they were slaves. This, of course, was a myth, and them heading to the Union lines during the Civil War further proved to Lincoln that he needed to free them. Prior to this, Lincoln personally did not support the enslavement but was concerned as to how the Northern slave states would react to the Union wanting to free their slaves. He was worried they would join the Confederacy. However, he realized that emancipation was a necessity, both politically and for the military.

Before the Civil War Abraham Lincoln was a free-soiler. He didn’t like the idea of slavery, and did not want it to expand into western territories. However, he was not a total abolitionist, as his main objective was to preserve the Union. In a letter

Abraham Lincoln has gone down as one of the most prominent presidents in the American history, from his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, to his assassination. Having to deal with some of the most troublesome times in the History of America, as president, Abraham did “to the best of my [his] ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” (Source B) in hopes to combine the North and South to once again become a United Nation. However, the status of African Americans in relationship of Lincoln must be analyzed further, as it was a crucial aspect of his presidency and distinction as “The Great Emancipator.” Although Lincoln was “ naturally anti-slavery,” (source B) he viewed it

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, was one of the most decorated commander-in-chiefs in American History, due to his never-ending push to mend our broken nation and move to the beginning. Nevertheless, many African Americans were forced to come to America to be sold into slavery in 1619. While the treatment of slaves was very unfair and, in many cases, inhumane, and was plagued with a lifetime of hard work and humiliation, after a little more than a hundred years President Lincoln took steps to not only voice his discomfort with slavery, but to do something about it. It is because of this discomfort that Abraham Lincoln notably