Summary Of If Lincoln Had Not Free The Slaves

“If Lincoln Had Not Freed The Slaves” In the article “If Lincoln Had Not Freed The Slaves” written by Tom Wicker, he puts forth many opinions on Lincoln and his participation on freeing the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was first given on September 22, 1862 proposing a date for freedom for more than three million slaves in the United States. Tom Wicker asks and answers the question of “What would have happened if Lincoln had not freed the slaves and there was never an Emancipation Proclamation issued?” Three points worth elaborating on are the racial segregation of blacks, Lincoln’s opinion on the war, and the decision made by Lincoln on when to release the Emancipation Proclamation.

The racial

Lincoln always wanted to win the war at hand. In the article it is stated,”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..” This basically states that Lincoln would do pretty much anything to save the Union and eventually win the war. Lincoln says that he would do anything to help the cause at hand. Apparently Lincoln thought that attempting to freeing the slaves would have helped the war effort. Helping the war effort is one thing but you must be devoted and passionate about the topic of freeing mistreated slaves. In my opinion Lincoln did have that passion to some extent, but I do believe that winning the war was more important to him than freeing the slaves. It is stated in the article that LIncoln believed “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.” This basically means that Abraham Lincoln’s main goal was to save the Union and not to fully free the slaves. This does not fully mean that the freeing of the slaves wasn’t something that Lincoln wanted to get rid of but just a supporting factor to diminish later in history.Lincoln also believed that he would do less if he decided that what he was doing was hurting the cause and do more if he decided that what he was doing was helping the cause. This in my opinion was somewhat of a smart move to make. There

Many battles being presented as well as defeats ultimately delayed the proclamation on being released. The timing on releasing the proclamation had to be perfect. I believe that the delays that presented themselves were necessary to the perfect window of time on releasing the Emancipation Proclamation to the public. Lincoln also chose to read to the Cabinet the first draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, his mind was made up but many people thought that the proclamation may come off to be a cry of distress if issued. The proclamation in my opinion was no way a cry of distress but a way to show some sort of light to the cruel treatment of black slaves and that it should be stopped. Even if it was just a small step to complete freedom for all, it was the right step on making the country unified as whole. The waiting did eventually pay off though, after all the waiting and hesitation, the proclamation was issued. The timing was made useful, if not released when it was, the fatal diplomatic act would have not been prevented for the Union. I believe that if the Emancipation Proclamation was released any other time than when it was, the result may have been quite different. The interesting fact is not only did the Emancipation Proclamation give hope to black society, bringing in 180,000 black troops by the end of 1865, but it