In
Robert Jefferson Breckinridge’s novel The
Nation’s Success and Gratitude, there was a letter included written by
President Lincoln to A.G. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky. In his letter Lincoln
discusses his reasoning and viewpoint for the delivery and enforcement of the
Emancipation Proclamation. He claims that in order for him to become President
of the United States he must take the oath to protect and preserve the
Constitution and the nation. Lincoln explained to Mr. Hodges that morally he
was naturally anti-slavery and believed the matter to be misaligned with the will
and word of God. However, the oath forbade him indulge his moral judgment on
slavery. His defense for his action at the cost of violating the Constitution
was that general law claimed that life and limb must be preserved. Yet, often a
limb must be amputated in order to save a life, and life is never wisely given
to save a limb. His argument was that the issue of slavery, the limb, may need
to be overruled in order to preserve the nation, the life. He believed that the
Emancipation Proclamation was a necessary action for the preservation of the
union. He claimed that measures once viewed as unconstitutional may become
lawful and indispensable to preserve the Constitution and the nation.
Lincoln’s
action to create a war of military emancipation was delayed by President
Lincoln himself throughout the war. Such an event was Lincoln’s rejection of
General Fremont’s attempt to create a war for military emancipation in the beginning
years of the war. Lincoln knew that enforcing military emancipation too early
would jeopardize the strength of the Union and force border states, such as
Kentucky, to secede with the other confederate states. Lincoln claimed that the
choice to delay the freeing of the slaves was a matter between surrendering the
Union or emancipation of the slaves. Lincoln ultimately chose to delay the
freeing of the slaves to save the union and keep his support from the bordering
states. He did not feel as though freeing the slaves earlier would be beneficial
for the Union and felt that if military emancipation would have occurred earlier
it would result in a Confederate victory and slavery would remain. Lincoln
believed that the matter of slavery and emancipation was in God’s will and that
with the freeing of the slaves people of the north as well as the south would
revere the justice and goodness of God.
Lincoln’s
action to emancipate the slaves during the time period went against the
mindsets of southerners as well as Kentuckians. Placing oneself in the shoes of
any slave holding citizen of Kentucky, who never rebelled against the Union,
you would still suffer the consequences of the Lincoln administration. Lincoln’s
action may have been beneficial for the future of our country, but at the time
it was viewed as tyranny. The American Spirit to live free and by democratic
law is engrained in every U.S. citizen, then and now. The actions of the
President Lincoln went against what our country was founded on and stood for.
The
letter written to A.G. Hodges discusses the reasoning behind the Emancipation
Proclamation, and when it is read today it is seen as positive reinforcement to
the preservation of the nation. However, the actions of Lincoln in 1863 caused
slave-holding citizens and slave-holding states to view the president as a tyrant.
If I were present during this time period, being from Kentucky, I too would
have the common view of Lincoln’s ruling being a violation of the
Constitutional Law in which we live by.
1. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, The Nation's Success and Gratitude ( Philadelphia: Henry B. Ashmead Book and Job Printer, 1864), 20-22.
I think that Lincoln did the exact thing that needed to be done. If he had emancipated the slaves at an earlier time he would have surely lost the border states to the Confederacy; which would have been a major set back for the Union in the War.
ReplyDelete