Abolitionist Study Part 4

Fredrick Douglass was aware of the inherent racism in the new Lincoln administration and probably knew that for every decision related to the slavery issue that Lincoln stood strong on, he lost some of his political support. None of the politicians knew how the Civil War would end but most would come to know enough about Lincoln's plan to redistribute the land in the south to the slaves. Politicians and the rest of the country knew that the Civil War would be a fight to the death for one of the factions involved in the war between the states, and I believe that remaining flexible, politically, was better than committing to an uncertain future.

To the south losing the Civil War would mean way more than simply losing a war, it would also mean losing a way of life that had existed for hundreds of years on this continent, and from what Lincoln could see the Confederates were intent upon winning the war to preserve their way of life. Douglass saw fighting the Civil War without the use of free colored people and slave the same as the Union fighting the war with only some of its available resources. The New York Tribune published "The Prayer of Twenty Millions" encouraging Lincoln to emancipate the slaves and in effect joining the Douglas Monthy publication in a call to bringing Africa into the Civil War.

Lincoln's response was:


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 one slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it...



Lincoln's focus on saving the Union with little consideration given to the thought of slavery, except where the issue might promote his cause was his presidential stance to the press and public. However, Lincoln himself secretly shared many of his fellow politician's fears about arming thousands of African Americans to do battle with the southern states. President Abraham Lincoln would eventually overcome his fear that a well-trained, well-armed regiment of colored people could help take the war to the south, and overcome his anxiety that weapons issued to the slaves would end up in Confederate hands.

History would later show that colored Americans wore the uniforms of the north and the south, and fought on both sides of the Civil War. Colored businessmen in New Orleans, after being refused by Robert E. Lee to join up with regular Confederate force, would take up defensive positions to protect their businesses in the south. Northern color Americans fought to be completely apart of the Union, and slaves from the north and the south would fight for promised freedom and better treatment for their military service in a war that would create veterans on both sides.