Abraham Lincoln`s Role in the Abolishment of Slavery in America

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  1. Introduction
  2. 1st inaugural speech
  3. The proclamation
  4. Second inaugural speech
  5. Bibliography
  6. Footnotes

Introduction

The political history of America can never be complete without mentioning Abraham Lincoln.And, with this history comes the role that he played in the abolishment of slavery in America (Meirs, 1991)1. Though he didn’t do it immediately he assumed office, Lincoln eventually helped bring constitutional changes that saw the end of slavery. There was some reluctance to abolish slavery when he assumed office, as read from his first inaugural speech.

In this speech, Lincoln emphasized the need for the law governing slavery to prevail and pointed out the importance of the independence of individual states in administering laws that governed slavery without the interference of the central government. He observed that much apprehension had invaded the south since the republican administration had assumed power with him as the president.

1st inaugural speech

It was important for the south to note that his ascendance to power would not change the way the laws were observed, he added. He informed the nation that his government was ready to protect its people through the constitution. This discussion will be elaborated more by his 1st inaugural speech. Gerald (2008)2 notes:

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property, and their peace, and personal security, are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the amplest evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you.

I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I do not incline to do so.” Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves, and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: ( Roy, 1935)3

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by an armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. (March 4, 1861)4

Although the president insisted on the application of the rule of law in the running of the nation, he also accepted that there were vacuums in the law that were in use. In his speech, he did not clearly indicate the exact solutions that will be used to address the vacuums. On these deficiencies, Lincoln said: (Roy, 1935)5

No foresight can anticipate, nor does any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. Might assembly ban slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. (March 4, 1861)6

That he did not admonish slavery then, is evident in his declaration he made over what becomes of a slave who took refuge in running to states that did not practice slavery will exempt him or her from servanthood. He made it clear that the country’s constitution provided for a continuation of slavery by a fugitive even in states that did not accommodate slavery. The services of the slave cum fugitive will be made available to individuals entitled and in need of the services. This he said in the first inaugural speech and Meirs (1991)7 notes:

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. (March 4, 1861)8

The proclamation

After settling in the office as president, Lincoln began putting in place pieces of legislation that had an overall effect of reducing slavery. The giant leaps that he made concerning slavery reduction came in the form of two executive orders popularly known as the emancipation proclamation. During the American civil war, the first executive order that he gave came on the 22nd of September 1862. This order provided freedom to all the slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America. These were states that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The second order was issued the same day as the first one.

Using his authority as the “commander in chief of the Army and Navy” Lincoln named ten states where the first order will apply. As expected, the proclamation was criticized by a section of the populace. It was condemned for giving freedom only to the slaves who were not under the power of the union. However, the proclamation gave freedom to thousands of slaves the very day that it was announced, although several others didn’t taste freedom until later. Of the ten states that the proclamation covered, it is only Texas that responded to demands immediately ( Barry, 2009)9.

The proclamation afforded freedom to more than four million slaves through a legal framework as the Union armies advanced. This had the effect of committing the union to end slavery, which was a contentious issue even in the North. One clear thing was that the proclamation did not include the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Delaware. These states had not declared secession, and hence no slaves were freed there.

During this period, the state of Tennessee had already mostly returned to the control of the Union, therefore it was also not named and was exempted. Additionally, Virginia was featured, but exemptions were spelled out for the 48 countries that were in the process of building West Virginia, along with seven other named counties and two cities. Furthermore, on the exemption list was New Orleans and thirteen named parishes of Louisiana. All these cities had mostly been under the control of the Federal government at the time of the first Proclamation (Roy, 1935)10.

Aside from Tennessee, other states in the Union-occupied areas of CSA states celebrated instant freedom immediately after the Proclamation and at least 20,000 slaves were freed at once on January 1, 1863. When the Proclamation was introduced, additional slaves immediately ran to Union lines as the Army units moved south. As the Union armies overcame the Confederacy, thousands of slaves were released each day until nearly all (close to 4 million, using the 1860 census were freed by July 1865 (Ibid)11.

At the end of the war, abolitionists were concerned that because the Proclamation was a measure of war, it had not completely finished slavery. Many of the former slave states had already put in place legislation abolishing slavery; however, some slavery went on to be legal, and to exist, until the institution was closed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865.

Second inaugural speech

In the year 1865 Lincoln assumed the presidency for the second term and before occupying office he was sworn in; fulfilling the constitutional requirements. On the fourth day of March, he was sworn in, and in his second inaugural speech, Lincoln reminiscences the events that led to the civil war that befell the nation in the period following his first swearing-in ceremony. He explains how the warmongers were all over the whole country advocating for war before he could even finish his first inaugural speech. Further, he pinpoints the basis upon which the war was started ( Roy,1935)12.

Closer scrutiny reveals that the war was basically a fight that was caused by the conflicts that had arisen from the existence of colored slaves. In this speech, the president seems unhappy about slavery and he advances his disappointment by invoking God’s name. He lays his doubts open over the possibility of God according to assistance to whoever lives off the sweat of others. These sentiments are a clear indication that Lincoln had grown into an individual who disapproved of the essence of slavery. In Lincoln’s second inaugural speech his disapproval is observed through the words of Barry, (2009) who notes13:

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.

Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not that we are not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must need be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!” If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must need come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? (March 4, 1865)14

Three days after Lincoln’s assassination, he made a public appearance within the Whitehouse in which he gave a speech that speeded up his death. His speech came only two days after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s army. His speech concentrated majorly on reconstruction; with a great emphasis being placed on Louisiana. It was in this particular speech that the president openly supported the rights of the blacks to vote.

This sentence about black suffrage was the death of him. Unknown to the president was the presence of John Wilkes Booth, a white supremacist and Confederate activist, who vowed to kill the president after the comments made by the president, angered him (Roy, 1935)15. This he did after three days. But of interest to us are the comments that the president made concerning slavery in this particular speech. By supporting the participation of the colored in politics, the president had realized that blacks were equal to whites and none was a slave of the other. And, this is part of what he said in his last public address as Jason, (2009)16 notes:

A number of voters in the now to then slave town of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their parliament has by now been nominated to approve the legitimate amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation.

These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Union, and perpetual freedom in the state–committed to the very things, and nearly all the things the nation wants–and they ask the nation’s recognition and its assistance to make good their committal. Now, if we reject, and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them (Jason, 2009)17.

The passion which Abraham Lincoln had in fighting slavery may be best demonstrated by the quotations that are found in the collected works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler. Below are three of them that demonstrate clearly as Barry (2009)18 notes:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, and I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. 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. (August 22, 1862)19, p. 388

Barry, (2009)20 also notes: Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it (April 6, 1859), p. 376.

Jason, (2009)21 notes: As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this to the extent of the difference, is no democracy. (August1, 1858), p. 532.

Jason, ( 2009)22 notes: Labor is before, and independent of, the capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much higher consideration. (December 3, 1861)23

In the United States, slavery was an institution that was well recognized. Lincoln had initially recognized slavery as a bad institution which he did not support and instead looked for all means to empower and bring to end slavery. As the political situations in the country changed, he also changed his stand about slavery. This was to a greater extent influenced by his wish to create a nation that was united. This indeed had repercussions for he had to struggle in creating a balance between the whites and the blacks.

From the above discussion and the accompanying quotation, it is evident that Abraham Lincoln was a president who took the leadership of America with among other objectives, to end slavery. Although he didn’t bring the reforms from the beginning of his first term, he eventually brought comprehensive reforms that safeguarded the rights of the minority. At the start of his first term, Lincoln concentrated so much on strictly following the laws that advocated for slavery. But, eventually, he structured reforms that went a long way in bringing equity to the masses. It is very clear that Lincoln’s death was caused by his stand on equal rights for both the whites and the coloreds. His death is caused by an assassin who was angered by his support for the minority.

Bibliography

Basler, Roy P. The Lincoln Legend. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1935.

Emerson, Jason. Lincoln the Inventor. Southern Illinois University Press, 2009.

Meirs, Earl S. Lincoln Day by Day. Dayton: Morningside House, 1991. Guelzo, Allen. Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America. Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Prokopowicz, Gerald J. Did Lincoln Own Slaves? And Other Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham Lincoln. Pantheon, 2008.

Schwartz, Barry. Abraham Lincoln and the Post-Heroic Era. University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Footnotes

  1. Meirs, 1991.
  2. Gerald 2008.
  3. Roy, 1935..
  4. Gerald, 2008.
  5. Roy, 1935.
  6. Roy, 1935.
  7. Meirs, 1991.
  8. Meirs, 1991.
  9. Barry, 2009.
  10. Roy, 1935.
  11. Ibid.
  12. Roy, 1935.
  13. Barry,2009.
  14. Roy, 1935.
  15. Roy, 1935.
  16. Jason,2009.
  17. Jason,2009.
  18. Barry, 2009.
  19. Barry, 2009.
  20. Barry, 2009.
  21. Jason,2009.
  22. Jason,2009.
  23. Meirs, 1991.
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