Abraham Lincoln on slavery
Encyclopedia
Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was one of the central issues in American history
. Initially, Lincoln
expected to bring about the eventual extinction of slavery by stopping its further expansion into any U.S. territory, and by offering compensated emancipation
(an offer accepted only by Washington, D.C). Lincoln stood by the Republican Party
platform in 1860, which stated that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any more territories. Lincoln believed that the extention of slavery in the South, Mid-west, and Western lands would inhibit "free labor on free soil." Lincoln was not an abolitionist; he did not call for the immediate end of slavery everywhere in the U.S. until the proposed 13th Amendment
became part of his party platform for the 1864 election
.
In 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd
, daughter of a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky. Lincoln returned to the political stage as a result of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
and soon became a leading opponent of the "Slaveocracy"--that is the political power of the southern slave owners.
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
, written to form the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, included language, designed by Stephen A. Douglas
, which allowed the settlers to decide whether they would or would not accept slavery in their region. Lincoln saw this as a repeal of the 1820 Missouri Compromise
which had outlawed slavery above the 36-30' parallel.
During the American Civil War
, Lincoln used the war powers of the presidency to issue the Emancipation Proclamation
, which declared "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free" but exempted border states and those areas of slave states already under Union control. As a practical matter, at first the Proclamation could only be enforced to free those slaves that had already escaped to the Union side. However, millions more were freed as more areas of the South came under Union control.
In 1837, as a member of the Illinois General Assembly, Lincoln issued a written protest of its passage of a resolution stating that slavery could not be abolished in Washington, D.C.
In 1841, he won a court case (Bailey v. Cromwell), representing a black woman who claimed she had already been freed and could not be sold as a slave. In 1847, he lost a case (Matson v. Rutherford) representing a slave owner (Robert Matson) claiming return of fugitive slaves. While a congressman from Illinois in 1846 to 1848, Lincoln supported the Wilmot Proviso
, which, if it had been adopted, would have banned slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico.
Lincoln had left politics until he was drawn back into it by the Kansas-Nebraska Act
of 1854, which allowed territories to decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery. Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for president in the election of 1860.
Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery, but held that the federal government was prevented by the Constitution from banning slavery in states where it already existed. His plan was to halt the spread of slavery, and to offer monetary compensation to slave-owners in states that agreed to end slavery (see Compensated emancipation
). He was considered a moderate within his party, as there were some who wanted the immediate abolition of slavery.
Many of Lincoln's public anti-slavery sentiments were shown in the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858
between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, his opponent who defeated him in the Senate
race. Douglas criticized him as being inconsistent, saying he altered his message and position on slavery and on the political rights of freed blacks in order to appeal to the audience before him, as northern Illinois was more hostile to slavery than southern Illinois.
Lincoln wrote to Joshua Speed in 1855:
The Republican Party was committed to restricting the growth of slavery, and its victory in the election of 1860
was the trigger for secession acts by Southern states. The debate before 1860 was mainly focused on the Western territories, especially Kansas and the popular sovereignty
controversy.
Though he thought it was essentially a reaffirmation of terms already in the Constitution, Lincoln was a driving force in 1861 for the compromise Corwin amendment
. It was passed by Congress and two states, but was abandoned once the Civil War began. It would have explicitly prohibited congressional interference with slavery in states where it already existed. The Corwin amendment was a late attempt at reconciliation, but it also was a measure of reassurance to the slave-holding border states that the federal government was not intent on taking away their powers.
At the beginning of the war, Lincoln prohibited his generals from freeing slaves even in captured territories. On August 30, 1861, Major General
John C. Frémont
, the commander of the Union Army in St. Louis, proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri
were free. Lincoln opposed allowing military leaders take executive actions that were not authorized by the government, and realized that such actions could induce slaveowners in border states to oppose the Union or even start supporting the enemy. Lincoln demanded Frémont modify his order and free only slaves owned by Missourians actively working for the South. When Frémont refused, he was replaced by the conservative General
Henry Wager Halleck
.
Radical Republicans such as William P. Fessenden
of Maine and Charles Sumner
supported Frémont. Fessenden described Lincoln's action as "a weak and unjustifiable concession to the Union
men of the border states" and Sumner writing in a letter to Lincoln how sad it was "to have the power of a god and not use it godlike."
The situation was repeated in May 1862, when General David Hunter
began enlisting black soldiers in the occupied district under his control. Soon afterwards Hunter issued a statement that all slaves owned by Confederates in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina were free. Despite the pleas of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase
, Lincoln ordered Hunter to disband the black 1st South Carolina Regiment
and to retract his proclamation. At all times Lincoln insisted that he controlled the issue—only he had the war powers.
Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting the war to preserve the Union. On August 22, 1862, just a few weeks before signing the Proclamation and after he had already discussed a draft of it with his cabinet in July, he wrote a letter in response to an editorial by Horace Greeley
of the New York Tribune
which had urged complete abolition:
Just one month after writing this letter, Lincoln issued his first Emancipation Proclamation
, which announced that at the beginning of 1863, he would use his war powers to free all slaves in states still in rebellion (as they came under Union control).
Also revealing was his letter a year later to James C. Conkling of August 26, 1863, which included the following excerpt:
Lincoln addresses the issue of his consistency (or lack thereof) between his earlier position and his later position of emancipation in an 1864 letter to Albert G. Hodges. In that letter, Lincoln states his ethical opposition to slavery, that he did not think he had the constitutional power to abolish it everywhere initially, and that emancipation became necessary for the preservation of the Union.
to the slave owners. The resolution was adopted by Congress, however, the Southern States refused to comply. On July 12, 1862 President Lincoln in a conference with Congressmen from Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri encouraged their respective states to adopt emancipation legislation that gave compensation to the slave owners. On July 14, 1862 President Lincoln sent a bill to Congress that allowed the Treasury to issue bonds at 6% interest to states for slave emancipation compensation to the slave owners. The bill was never voted on by Congress. At the Hampton Roads Conference
in 1865, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander H. Stephens stated that President Lincoln was in favor of a "fair indemnity", possibly $400,000,000, in compensation for emancipated slaves.
of freed slaves was long seen by many as an answer to the problem of slavery. One of President Abraham Lincoln
's policies during his administration was the voluntary colonization of African American
Freedmen. Historians have debated and have remained divided over whether Lincoln's racial views (or merely his acceptance of the political reality) included that African Americans could not live in the same society as white Americans. Benjamin Butler
stated that Lincoln in 1865 firmly denied that "racial harmony" would be possible in the United States.
One view is that Lincoln adopted colonization for Freedmen in order to make his Emancipation Proclamation
politically acceptable. This view has been challenged since President Lincoln's administration made "active attempts" to colonize African Americans during 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863.
Since the 1840s Lincoln had been an advocate of the American Colonization Society
program of colonizing blacks in Liberia
. In an October 16, 1854 speech at Peoria, Illinois
(transcribed after the fact by Lincoln himself),
Lincoln points out the immense difficulties of such a task are an obstacle to finding an easy way to quickly end slavery.
Lincoln mentioned colonization favorably in his first Emancipation Proclamation, and continued to support efforts at colonization throughout his presidency.
The first such scheme was attempted in September 1862, and consisted of an attempt to colonize the Chiriquí
region of Panama
. Lincoln signed a contract with businessman Ambrose W. Thompson, the owner of the land, and appointed Kansas Senator Samuel Pomeroy to administer the project, with plans to send as many as 50,000 slaves. The plan was aborted before a single ship sailed though, due to a host of reasons involving objections from neighboring Central American governments and questions about the validity of Thompson's land titles.
In December 1862, Lincoln signed a contract with businessman Bernard Kock to establish a colony on the Ile a Vache
near Haiti
. 500 freed slaves departed for the island from Fort Monroe
, Virginia, though the project proved to be a disaster. Poor planning, an outbreak of smallpox
, and financial mismanagement by Kock left the colonists under-supplied and starving, requiring the rescue of survivors by the United States Navy after only a year.
Lincoln also created an agency to direct his colonization projects. In 1862 he appointed the Rev. James Mitchell
of Indiana to oversee colonization, and established a Bureau of Emigration under his head at the Department of the Interior.
In addition to Panama and Haiti, Mitchell's office also oversaw attempts at colonization in British Honduras
and elsewhere in the British West Indies
. Lincoln believed that by dealing with the comparatively stable British Government, he could avoid some of the problems that plagued his earlier attempts at colonization with private interests.
He signed an agreement on June 13, 1863 with John Hodge of British Honduras that authorized colonial agents to recruit ex-slaves and transport them to Belize from approved ports in Philadelphia, New York
, and Boston
.
Later that year the Department of the Interior sent John Willis Menard
, a free African-American clerk who supported colonization, to investigate the site for the government. British authorities pulled out of the agreement in December, fearing it would disrupt their position of neutrality in the Civil War.
The question of when Lincoln abandoned colonization, if ever, has aroused considerable debate among historians.
The government funded no more colonies after the rescue of the Ile a Vache survivors in early 1864, and Congress repealed most of the colonization funding that July.
Whether Lincoln's opinion had changed is unknown. He left no surviving statements in his own hand on the subject during the last two years of his presidency, although he apparently wrote Attorney General
Edward Bates
in September 1864 to inquire whether earlier legislation allowed him to continue pursuing colonization and to retain Mitchell's services irrespective of the loss of funding. An entry in the diary of presidential secretary John Hay
dated July 2, 1864 says that Lincoln had "sloughed off" colonization, though without much elaboration.
In a later report, General Benjamin F. Butler
claimed that Lincoln approached him in 1865 a few days before his assassination, to talk about reviving colonization in Panama.
Historians have long debated the validity of Butler's account, as it was written many years after the fact and Butler was prone to exaggeration of his own exploits as a general.
Recently discovered documents prove that Butler and Lincoln did indeed meet on April 11, 1865, though whether and to what extent they talked about colonization is not recorded except in Butler's account.
On that same day, Lincoln gave a speech supporting a form of limited suffrage for blacks.(see next section)
Much of the present debate revolves around whether to accept Butler's story. If rejected, then it appears that Lincoln "sloughed off" colonization at some point in mid 1864. If it is accepted, then Lincoln remained a colonizationist at the time of his death. This question is compounded by the unclear meaning of Hay's diary, and another article by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
, which suggests that Lincoln intended to revive colonization in his second term. In either case, the implications for understanding Lincoln's views on race and slavery are strong.
This might have been a strategy speech used to gain voters, as Douglas had accused Lincoln of favoring negroes too much as well.
In his second term as president, on April 11, 1865, Lincoln gave a speech supporting a form of limited suffrage extended to what Lincoln described as the more "intelligent" blacks and those blacks who had rendered special services to the nation. In analyzing Lincoln's position historian Eugene H. Berwanger notes:
and blacks to serve as jurors. While President, as the American Civil War
progressed, Lincoln advocated or implemented anti-racist policies including the Emancipation Proclamation
and limited suffrage for African Americans. Former slave and leading abolitionist, Frederick Douglass
once observed of Lincoln: "In his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color". Douglas praised Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, however, he stated that Lincoln "was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men." Although Lincoln believed that African Americans deserved to be free, the equality of race, was not the primary focus of Lincoln's presidency. Generations through changing times have interpreted independently Lincoln's views on African Americans.
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
. Initially, Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
expected to bring about the eventual extinction of slavery by stopping its further expansion into any U.S. territory, and by offering compensated emancipation
Compensated Emancipation
Compensated emancipation was a method of ending slavery in countries where slavery was legal. This involved the person who was recognized as the owner of a slave being compensated monetarily or by a period of labor for releasing the slave...
(an offer accepted only by Washington, D.C). Lincoln stood by the Republican Party
History of the United States Republican Party
The United States Republican Party is the second oldest currently existing political party in the United States after its great rival, the Democratic Party. It emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas Nebraska Act which threatened to extend slavery into the territories, and to promote more vigorous...
platform in 1860, which stated that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any more territories. Lincoln believed that the extention of slavery in the South, Mid-west, and Western lands would inhibit "free labor on free soil." Lincoln was not an abolitionist; he did not call for the immediate end of slavery everywhere in the U.S. until the proposed 13th Amendment
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
became part of his party platform for the 1864 election
United States presidential election, 1864
In the United States Presidential election of 1864, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected as president. The election was held during the Civil War. Lincoln ran under the National Union ticket against Democratic candidate George B. McClellan, his former top general. McClellan ran as the "peace candidate",...
.
In 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd
Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...
, daughter of a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky. Lincoln returned to the political stage as a result of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
and soon became a leading opponent of the "Slaveocracy"--that is the political power of the southern slave owners.
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
, written to form the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, included language, designed by Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
, which allowed the settlers to decide whether they would or would not accept slavery in their region. Lincoln saw this as a repeal of the 1820 Missouri Compromise
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'...
which had outlawed slavery above the 36-30' parallel.
During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Lincoln used the war powers of the presidency to issue the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
, which declared "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free" but exempted border states and those areas of slave states already under Union control. As a practical matter, at first the Proclamation could only be enforced to free those slaves that had already escaped to the Union side. However, millions more were freed as more areas of the South came under Union control.
Legal and political career
Lincoln, the leader most associated with the end of slavery in the United States, came to national prominence following the advent of the Republican Party.In 1837, as a member of the Illinois General Assembly, Lincoln issued a written protest of its passage of a resolution stating that slavery could not be abolished in Washington, D.C.
In 1841, he won a court case (Bailey v. Cromwell), representing a black woman who claimed she had already been freed and could not be sold as a slave. In 1847, he lost a case (Matson v. Rutherford) representing a slave owner (Robert Matson) claiming return of fugitive slaves. While a congressman from Illinois in 1846 to 1848, Lincoln supported the Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso, one of the major events leading to the Civil War, would have banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War or in the future, including the area later known as the Mexican Cession, but which some proponents construed to also include the disputed...
, which, if it had been adopted, would have banned slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico.
Lincoln had left politics until he was drawn back into it by the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
of 1854, which allowed territories to decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery. Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for president in the election of 1860.
Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery, but held that the federal government was prevented by the Constitution from banning slavery in states where it already existed. His plan was to halt the spread of slavery, and to offer monetary compensation to slave-owners in states that agreed to end slavery (see Compensated emancipation
Compensated Emancipation
Compensated emancipation was a method of ending slavery in countries where slavery was legal. This involved the person who was recognized as the owner of a slave being compensated monetarily or by a period of labor for releasing the slave...
). He was considered a moderate within his party, as there were some who wanted the immediate abolition of slavery.
Emancipation
Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, and the incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; thus Lincoln and...
between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, his opponent who defeated him in the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
race. Douglas criticized him as being inconsistent, saying he altered his message and position on slavery and on the political rights of freed blacks in order to appeal to the audience before him, as northern Illinois was more hostile to slavery than southern Illinois.
Lincoln wrote to Joshua Speed in 1855:
The Republican Party was committed to restricting the growth of slavery, and its victory in the election of 1860
United States presidential election, 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election, held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout the 1850s on questions surrounding the...
was the trigger for secession acts by Southern states. The debate before 1860 was mainly focused on the Western territories, especially Kansas and the popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the political principle that the legitimacy of the state is created and sustained by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with Republicanism and the social contract...
controversy.
Though he thought it was essentially a reaffirmation of terms already in the Constitution, Lincoln was a driving force in 1861 for the compromise Corwin amendment
Corwin amendment
The Corwin Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the 36th Congress, 2nd Session, on March 2, 1861, in the form of House Resolution No. 80...
. It was passed by Congress and two states, but was abandoned once the Civil War began. It would have explicitly prohibited congressional interference with slavery in states where it already existed. The Corwin amendment was a late attempt at reconciliation, but it also was a measure of reassurance to the slave-holding border states that the federal government was not intent on taking away their powers.
At the beginning of the war, Lincoln prohibited his generals from freeing slaves even in captured territories. On August 30, 1861, Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
, the commander of the Union Army in St. Louis, proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
were free. Lincoln opposed allowing military leaders take executive actions that were not authorized by the government, and realized that such actions could induce slaveowners in border states to oppose the Union or even start supporting the enemy. Lincoln demanded Frémont modify his order and free only slaves owned by Missourians actively working for the South. When Frémont refused, he was replaced by the conservative General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Henry Wager Halleck
Henry Wager Halleck
Henry Wager Halleck was a United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory, "Old Brains." He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer...
.
Radical Republicans such as William P. Fessenden
William P. Fessenden
William Pitt Fessenden was an American politician from the U.S. state of Maine.Fessenden was a Whig and member of the Fessenden political family...
of Maine and Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
supported Frémont. Fessenden described Lincoln's action as "a weak and unjustifiable concession to the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
men of the border states" and Sumner writing in a letter to Lincoln how sad it was "to have the power of a god and not use it godlike."
The situation was repeated in May 1862, when General David Hunter
David Hunter
David Hunter was a Union general in the American Civil War. He achieved fame by his unauthorized 1862 order emancipating slaves in three Southern states and as the president of the military commission trying the conspirators involved with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.-Early...
began enlisting black soldiers in the occupied district under his control. Soon afterwards Hunter issued a statement that all slaves owned by Confederates in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina were free. Despite the pleas of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase
Salmon P. Chase
Salmon Portland Chase was an American politician and jurist who served as U.S. Senator from Ohio and the 23rd Governor of Ohio; as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln; and as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.Chase was one of the most prominent members...
, Lincoln ordered Hunter to disband the black 1st South Carolina Regiment
1st South Carolina Regiment
The 1st South Carolina Regiment was raised on June 6, 1775 at Charleston, South Carolina for service with the Continental Army. The regiment saw action at the Siege of Savannah and the Siege of Charleston. The regiment was captured at Charleston on May 12, 1780 together with the rest of the...
and to retract his proclamation. At all times Lincoln insisted that he controlled the issue—only he had the war powers.
Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting the war to preserve the Union. On August 22, 1862, just a few weeks before signing the Proclamation and after he had already discussed a draft of it with his cabinet in July, he wrote a letter in response to an editorial by Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
of the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
which had urged complete abolition:
Just one month after writing this letter, Lincoln issued his first Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
, which announced that at the beginning of 1863, he would use his war powers to free all slaves in states still in rebellion (as they came under Union control).
Also revealing was his letter a year later to James C. Conkling of August 26, 1863, which included the following excerpt:
Lincoln addresses the issue of his consistency (or lack thereof) between his earlier position and his later position of emancipation in an 1864 letter to Albert G. Hodges. In that letter, Lincoln states his ethical opposition to slavery, that he did not think he had the constitutional power to abolish it everywhere initially, and that emancipation became necessary for the preservation of the Union.
Compensation
President Lincoln advocated that slave owners be compensated for emancipated slaves. On March 6, 1862 President Lincoln in a message to the U.S. Congress stated that emancipating slaves would create economic "inconveniences" and justified compensationCompensation
Compensation can refer to:*Financial compensation, various meanings*Compensation , various advantages a player has in exchange for a disadvantage*Compensation *Compensation , by Ralph Waldo Emerson...
to the slave owners. The resolution was adopted by Congress, however, the Southern States refused to comply. On July 12, 1862 President Lincoln in a conference with Congressmen from Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri encouraged their respective states to adopt emancipation legislation that gave compensation to the slave owners. On July 14, 1862 President Lincoln sent a bill to Congress that allowed the Treasury to issue bonds at 6% interest to states for slave emancipation compensation to the slave owners. The bill was never voted on by Congress. At the Hampton Roads Conference
Hampton Roads Conference
The Hampton Roads Conference was an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate an end to the American Civil War. On February 3, 1865, near Fort Monroe in Newport News, Virginia, aboard a ship, the River Queen, President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, representing the United...
in 1865, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander H. Stephens stated that President Lincoln was in favor of a "fair indemnity", possibly $400,000,000, in compensation for emancipated slaves.
Colonization
ColonizationAmerican Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society , founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen...
of freed slaves was long seen by many as an answer to the problem of slavery. One of President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's policies during his administration was the voluntary colonization of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Freedmen. Historians have debated and have remained divided over whether Lincoln's racial views (or merely his acceptance of the political reality) included that African Americans could not live in the same society as white Americans. Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Butler may refer to:*Benjamin Franklin Butler , U.S. lawyer who served as Attorney General, 1833–1838*Benjamin Franklin Butler , U.S. political figure; general in American Civil War; Governor of Massachusetts*Benjamin Butler Painter...
stated that Lincoln in 1865 firmly denied that "racial harmony" would be possible in the United States.
One view is that Lincoln adopted colonization for Freedmen in order to make his Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
politically acceptable. This view has been challenged since President Lincoln's administration made "active attempts" to colonize African Americans during 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863.
Since the 1840s Lincoln had been an advocate of the American Colonization Society
American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society , founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen...
program of colonizing blacks in Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
. In an October 16, 1854 speech at Peoria, Illinois
Abraham Lincoln Peoria speech
Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech was made in Peoria, Illinois on October 16, 1854. The speech, with its specific arguments against slavery, was an important step in Abraham Lincoln's political ascension....
(transcribed after the fact by Lincoln himself),
- a.
- b.
- c.
- d.
Lincoln points out the immense difficulties of such a task are an obstacle to finding an easy way to quickly end slavery.
- My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,—to their own native land. But a moment’s reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible.
Lincoln mentioned colonization favorably in his first Emancipation Proclamation, and continued to support efforts at colonization throughout his presidency.
The first such scheme was attempted in September 1862, and consisted of an attempt to colonize the Chiriquí
Chiriquí Province
Chiriquí is a province of Panama, it is located on the western coast of Panama, and it is also the second most developed province in the country, after the Panamá Province. Its capital is the city of David. It has a total area of 6,490.9 km², with a population of 416,873 as of the year 2010...
region of Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. Lincoln signed a contract with businessman Ambrose W. Thompson, the owner of the land, and appointed Kansas Senator Samuel Pomeroy to administer the project, with plans to send as many as 50,000 slaves. The plan was aborted before a single ship sailed though, due to a host of reasons involving objections from neighboring Central American governments and questions about the validity of Thompson's land titles.
In December 1862, Lincoln signed a contract with businessman Bernard Kock to establish a colony on the Ile a Vache
Île à Vache
Île à Vache is a small island lying off the south-west peninsula of Haiti near the town of Les Cayes. Administratively it is part of the Sud Department. It is about long, wide, with an area of...
near Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. 500 freed slaves departed for the island from Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe was a military installation in Hampton, Virginia—at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula...
, Virginia, though the project proved to be a disaster. Poor planning, an outbreak of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, and financial mismanagement by Kock left the colonists under-supplied and starving, requiring the rescue of survivors by the United States Navy after only a year.
Lincoln also created an agency to direct his colonization projects. In 1862 he appointed the Rev. James Mitchell
James Mitchell (American politician)
The Reverend James Mitchell was the United States Commissioner on negro colonization in the Abraham Lincoln administration, and a prominent religious leader in the Georgia Episcopal Methodist Conference after the American Civil War.Mitchell was born to Protestant parents in Derry in 1818, and...
of Indiana to oversee colonization, and established a Bureau of Emigration under his head at the Department of the Interior.
In addition to Panama and Haiti, Mitchell's office also oversaw attempts at colonization in British Honduras
British Honduras
British Honduras was a British colony that is now the independent nation of Belize.First colonised by Spaniards in the 17th century, the territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, became a British crown colony from 1862 until 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became...
and elsewhere in the British West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
. Lincoln believed that by dealing with the comparatively stable British Government, he could avoid some of the problems that plagued his earlier attempts at colonization with private interests.
He signed an agreement on June 13, 1863 with John Hodge of British Honduras that authorized colonial agents to recruit ex-slaves and transport them to Belize from approved ports in Philadelphia, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
Later that year the Department of the Interior sent John Willis Menard
John Willis Menard
John Willis Menard was the first African American elected to the United States Congress.Menard was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, to parents of Louisiana Creole descent from New Orleans who were free people of color. He may have been related to Michel Branamour Menard, a French-Canadian fur trader...
, a free African-American clerk who supported colonization, to investigate the site for the government. British authorities pulled out of the agreement in December, fearing it would disrupt their position of neutrality in the Civil War.
The question of when Lincoln abandoned colonization, if ever, has aroused considerable debate among historians.
The government funded no more colonies after the rescue of the Ile a Vache survivors in early 1864, and Congress repealed most of the colonization funding that July.
Whether Lincoln's opinion had changed is unknown. He left no surviving statements in his own hand on the subject during the last two years of his presidency, although he apparently wrote Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Edward Bates
Edward Bates
Edward Bates was a U.S. lawyer and statesman. He served as United States Attorney General under Abraham Lincoln from 1861 to 1864...
in September 1864 to inquire whether earlier legislation allowed him to continue pursuing colonization and to retain Mitchell's services irrespective of the loss of funding. An entry in the diary of presidential secretary John Hay
John Hay
John Milton Hay was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
dated July 2, 1864 says that Lincoln had "sloughed off" colonization, though without much elaboration.
In a later report, General Benjamin F. Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
claimed that Lincoln approached him in 1865 a few days before his assassination, to talk about reviving colonization in Panama.
Historians have long debated the validity of Butler's account, as it was written many years after the fact and Butler was prone to exaggeration of his own exploits as a general.
Recently discovered documents prove that Butler and Lincoln did indeed meet on April 11, 1865, though whether and to what extent they talked about colonization is not recorded except in Butler's account.
On that same day, Lincoln gave a speech supporting a form of limited suffrage for blacks.(see next section)
Much of the present debate revolves around whether to accept Butler's story. If rejected, then it appears that Lincoln "sloughed off" colonization at some point in mid 1864. If it is accepted, then Lincoln remained a colonizationist at the time of his death. This question is compounded by the unclear meaning of Hay's diary, and another article by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the Civil War...
, which suggests that Lincoln intended to revive colonization in his second term. In either case, the implications for understanding Lincoln's views on race and slavery are strong.
Citizenship and limited suffrage
Lincoln stated that Negroes had the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in the first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates. Publicly, Lincoln said he was not advocating Negro suffrage in his speech in Columbus, Ohio on September 16, 1859.This might have been a strategy speech used to gain voters, as Douglas had accused Lincoln of favoring negroes too much as well.
In his second term as president, on April 11, 1865, Lincoln gave a speech supporting a form of limited suffrage extended to what Lincoln described as the more "intelligent" blacks and those blacks who had rendered special services to the nation. In analyzing Lincoln's position historian Eugene H. Berwanger notes:
Views on African Americans
Known as the Great Emancipator, Lincoln was a complicated figure who wrestled with his own views on the African American race. Lincoln's primary audience were white voters. Lincoln's views on slavery, race equality, and African American colonization are often intermixed. During the 1858 debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln expressed his contemporary view that he believed whites were superior to blacks. Lincoln stated he was against miscegenationMiscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
and blacks to serve as jurors. While President, as the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
progressed, Lincoln advocated or implemented anti-racist policies including the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
and limited suffrage for African Americans. Former slave and leading abolitionist, Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
once observed of Lincoln: "In his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color". Douglas praised Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, however, he stated that Lincoln "was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men." Although Lincoln believed that African Americans deserved to be free, the equality of race, was not the primary focus of Lincoln's presidency. Generations through changing times have interpreted independently Lincoln's views on African Americans.
See also
- George Washington and slaveryGeorge Washington and slaveryGeorge Washington was a slave owner for practically all of his life. His will ultimately emancipated his slaves upon the death of his widow Martha Washington. Although Washington personally opposed the institution of slavery after the American Revolutionary War, while President, he gave...
- Thomas Jefferson and slaveryThomas Jefferson and slaveryThomas Jefferson, a world-famous advocate of liberty, lived in a slave society; he had a 5,000-acre plantation and owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime. He relied on slavery to support his family's lifestyle...
- Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement