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Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union

Online ISBN:
9781469627335
Print ISBN:
9781469627311
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press
Book

Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union

Published online:
22 September 2016
Published in print:
25 April 2016
Online ISBN:
9781469627335
Print ISBN:
9781469627311
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press

Abstract

This landmark book examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s life: his role as the “Great Emancipator.” Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it to be legal where it already existed, and he never imagined fighting a war to end it. In 1861, as part of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and prevent war, the new president even offered to accept a constitutional amendment that barred Congress from interfering with slavery in the slave states. Lincoln made this key overture in his first inaugural address. This book unearths the hidden history and political maneuvering behind the stillborn attempt to enact the other thirteenth amendment, the polar opposite to the actual Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 that ended slavery. It sheds light on an overlooked element of Lincoln’s statecraft and presents a relentlessly honest portrayal of America’s most admired president. It rejects the view advanced by some Lincoln scholars that the wartime momentum toward emancipation originated well before the first shots were fired. Lincoln did indeed become the “Great Emancipator,” but he had no such intention when he first took office. Only amid the crucible of combat did the war to save the Union become a war for freedom.

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