Abraham Lincoln's Great Awakening: From Moderate to Abolitionist

I have read several books on Lincoln, including Carl Sandburg's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, and Lincoln had always hated slavery. Just read the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and his speeches, like "The House Divided" sppech on accepting the Republican nomination for US Senate in Illinois. He did not believe he would get the opportunity as president to abolish slavery everywhere, just to prevent its spread, so that it would die of its own weight, similar to what happened with communism. He could not save the union and ultimately have the opportunity to aboilish slavery in the south, if he had announced universal abolition as he came into office, as losing the border states would have made preserving the union, with or without slavery, impossible. It's easy to say now that he had to be pushed, when it is really a matter of making sure the timing was right Frederick Douglas certainly believe Lincoln was for emancipation, and he was friends with Lincoln. Frederick Douglas knew it was personal for Lincoln, as when Lincoln thought he would lose the elction in 1864, he privately implored Douglas to get a group organized to go south and free as many slaves as possible, and get them north, in case Lincoln lost the election. It was Lincoln's personal hatered, not just politics. Anyway, Lincoln played the timing perfectly to both hold the border states and the rest of the north together, and then strike slavery in the south. To claim Lincoln had to be pushed into emancipation is just inaccurate monday morning quarterbacking. This slander of Linclon in this article is grotesque. Lincoln gave his life for abolition and citizenship for former slaves. He believed they should be equal, thus the reference to the Declaration of Independence's phrase on all men being equal in the Gettysburg Address.

Charles Weeks of FL 10:06AM November 20, 2012