In Chapter 3 of Abraham Lincoln,
Abraham Lincoln was extremely dedicated to preserving a united nation.
Lincoln was the first American president to have ever faced the
challenges of disunion, rebellion, and civil war. It was made clear that
the southern states had been threatening secession from the Union for
many years. South Carolina served notice that if their nullification was
rejected by Washington, they would secede. But, never once had the
South carried out its threats. A Republican strategist Carl Schurz
commented about the Southern states and that they would, “secede, go out
and take two drinks, and come back again,”(50). Many Northern
congressmen had gotten tired of the empty Southern states threats so
they did not take the talk of secession seriously. The Southerners saw
the election of Abraham Lincoln as a preemptive act of war. They even
considered Lincoln as a “Black Republican” because in their view,
Lincoln advocated equality for slaves or worse, favored insurrection. On
December 20, 1860, six weeks after Lincoln’s election, the Union came
apart. Lincoln decided to fill his cabinet with his former rivals to get
different point of views. The substantial dispute between the North and
South was slavery was also discussed in the book. Lincoln utilized the
suspension of habeas corpus to enforce military conscription. The event
that leads into chapter 4 would be that Lincoln issued Emancipation
Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
In Chapter 4, Lincoln’s order, the
Emancipation Proclamation, freed four million slaves with the stroke of a
pen. Lincoln’s views on slavery had evolved over the years. He even
described himself as naturally anti-slavery. Slavery violated the
promise of the Declaration of Independence. The border states, which
were slave states, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri did not
join the Confederacy. The thirteenth amendment was ratified in 1865. The
Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army
and Navy.
The purpose of the author was to
inform the reader of Abraham Lincoln’s decisions before and during his
presidency. The author showed the impact of Lincoln’s actions such as
the push of the Emancipation Proclamation during the war. The voices
missing were the Southern states point of view on the Emancipation
Proclamation and the Northern states point of view on the Proclamation.
Specific comments from the North and South were not mentioned in the
book from people living in those areas, only as a whole.
In class we discussed the Abraham
Lincoln stretches such as the Emancipation Proclamation, censored press,
and the draft of the Northern men. The Emancipation Proclamation did
not sit well with some people in the North and most of the people in the
South. Most thought that Lincoln was supporting the rights of African
Americans, slaves. We also talked about what brought to the point of the
Emancipation Proclamation which was the wanting of unity for the Union
and the divided cabinet because of the former rivals in the cabinet with
very opinionated point of views. The last thing we talked about was the
first inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was trying to make
it clear to the South that seceding was not a good idea and that they
were making their decision to do that too quickly. He wanted them to
stop, take a step back and think about what they were planning on doing.
We questioned how the African
Americans felt about the Emancipation Proclamation. Turns out they were
happy about it but didn’t know how it was going to play out in the end.
We also questioned how the North felt about the Proclamation, were they
all on board with supporting or did they disagree like the South? Not
all of the North supported the Emancipation Proclamation, just like not
all of the South disagreed with it either.
The one question we are left
wondering would be, did the Emancipation Proclamation that ended up not
working out in the end, really have a strong effect on the future of the
country?