On July 22, 1862, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln created the preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet. He created this document in response to the secession of the southern states and acted as an ultimatum for the Confederacy. He explained that if the rebel states did not return to the Union by January 1863, he would pass this law. This was a major milestone in the fight against slavery as before this, the goal of the union was not to free slaves but to simply reunite the country.
However, while he did that privately, he publically refused to give a hard stance on his position on slavery, citing he desire to preserve the Union at all costs. This put him at odds with abolitionists like Horace Greeley over the issue of slavery.
Letter to Horace Greeley
The American Civil War, which raged from 1861 to 1865, was primarily fought over the issues of slavery and to preserve the Union. The Confederacy formed in response to the increasing pressure to outlaw slavery and by the summer of 1862, the war had entered its second year with no clear end in sight. Both the Union and the Confederacy had suffered heavy casualties, and public opinion was deeply divided on the path to victory and the role of slavery in the conflict.
Amidst this turmoil, President Abraham Lincoln faced immense pressure from various factions. Radical Republicans, abolitionists, and influential figures like Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, were increasingly vocal in demanding that Lincoln take a more decisive stance against slavery. Prior to this, the Union was primarily focused on reuniting with the Confederacy and was prepared to permit the continuation of slavery. However, with the impending issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s stance on slavery was about to shift dramatically.
This led to Greely publishing an open letter called “The Prayer of Twenty Millions,” on August 19, 1862. Here he criticized President Lincoln for not taking a harder stance on abolishing slavery and demanded he enforce the Confiscation Acts, which allowed the Union to seize and free slaves from Confederate territories.
Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation
In response to Greeley’s editorial, Lincoln personally wrote to Greely on August 22, 1862. Here he outlines his aims for this war, preserving the union, and that he will do that regardless of if it involves freeing slaves or not. While that was his public stance, a month prior Lincoln had already drafted the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and presented it to his Cabinet on July 22, 1862.
The Emancipation Proclamation declared that slaves in Confederate states would be freed if those states did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. Lincoln chose to delay its announcement, waiting for a significant Union military victory to bolster its reception. This victory came with the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, after which Lincoln formally issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 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 any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.
Yours,
-Abraham Lincoln, Former President of the United States.
A. Lincoln.
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