Lincoln and the Emancipation

The story of emancipation begins in 1820. Years after President Thomas Jefferson's Lousiana Purchase, the state of Missouri wanted to apply for slave statehood . At the time of the purchase, the Union had 11 slave states and 11 free states. Northerners weren't trying to have a new slave state, scared that a new imbalance in the ratio would send the Union in a different direction. In the northeast, newly independent Maine wanted to apply for free statehood, the reaction was the same on the southern side. The "Great Compromiser" Henry Clay proposed that each state be let in, in its respective preference, keeping the balance of 12 and 12. Both parties accepted. More importantly, the two sides agreed on another thing that would physically separate the two. The compromise declared slavery illegal north of the 36∘ 30' parallel west of Missouri.

This compromise would become significant, as the first Northern outrage on an issue such as slavery. More conflicts would come as America expanded. In 1850, President Taylor proposed admitting New Mexico and California as free states. Southerners expressed their protest at a huge Southern convention, in which secession was openly pushed. In comes Clay again, and in Ð''Great Compromising' fashion, California was to be let in as free, while New Mexico and Utah's fate would be decided by local vote. The fugitive slave law, where northerners would be rewarded for turning runaway slaves in to authorities, was also implemented. This law is important, as it showed the Northern parties greater concern for the politics of slavery, rather than the act of slavery itself.

By the time Nebraska and Kansas were to be admitted as free states in 1854, Southerners were already fed up, and did not want any more free states in the Union. Nebraska, which was over the Missouri free/slave line, would automatically become eligible as, and only as, a free state. Aware of the Southern displeasure, Stephen Douglas proposed that much like Utah and New Mexico, all newly admitted states would vote on slave state or free. The act was passed through Congress, leaving Northerners outraged as pro-slavery supported rushed to Kansas and Nebraska to sway votes.

Tensions between the two regions were higher then ever. The famous Dred Scott decision was passed, with the heavily Southern Supreme Court deciding that black men had no rights and the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional, as slavery should be allowed in every face. It was a complete slap in the face to Northern politics.

The pot was near boiling, a feeling of change was in the air, you could hear the leak in the fragile Union walls. The stage was set for the famous Lincoln-Douglas Senate debates, where slavery was not an issue but the main event. For the first time Republicans would go head to head with Democrats. As one would expect, Douglas painted Lincoln as an advocate of racial equality and social mixing. What you may not expect was Lincoln's reaction to this. He denied being an abolitionist, further saying "I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races." These do not sound like the words a "Great Emancipator." But the fact was that at the time, Lincoln saying he believed in black and white equality would have been as outrageous as President Bush pushing desegregation today. In fact, had the Union known what Lincoln would do in the future, there is no way he would be elected president today. Lincoln would add later on in the debates "there is no reason in the world why a Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence." While the last statement may have lost the Senate election for him, it put Lincoln on the political map as an anti-slavery spokesman.

Slavery stilled lingered as the main issue when the Presidential Election of 1860 came around. The southerners nominated Stephen Douglas, already an audible supporter of slavery. The Republicans, surprisingly, nominated Abraham Lincoln. Now Lincoln was still considered a political nobody, as he only served one term in the House of Representatives. He was nominated because of his moderate views and residence in a split state. He would not be too radical for southern votes.

Lincoln surprised everybody with a victory. His win would be overshadowed however, by the soon-after formation of the Confederate States of America. The south was fed up. The Lincoln election symbolized the loss of southern power. Threatened by the inevitable restriction of slave state expansion, the south resented the new direction of the Union. In the same year Lincoln was elected, South Carolina unanimously voted to secede from the Union. Jefferson Davis would be elected as president of the Confederacy, as the once small leak in the Union would spread into an entire collapse. Ironically the tradition of slavery, which served as the foundation for American economy for so long, proved to tear apart a once unbreakable bond. And in a strange twist of fate, and luck, would seal that bond back together.

On the day after Lincoln's inauguration, he received a letter from a Union Army Captain, stating that supplies were low in Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was located in South Carolina. Under new secession, South Carolinian officials banned any sales to the troops stationed in the Union fort. Lincoln would have to send a ship full of supplies into now foreign and hostile territory. Aware that the idea of losing a fort would make the North seem weak, Lincoln decided to send the ship full of supplies. Some believe that Lincoln did this as a "moving bulls eye," tempting the southerners to strike first. On April 10, 1861, the day the ship came in, Confederate armies fired upon Fort Sumter. The Union troops were forced to surrender, and the war had begun.

It should be noted that the war began on an issue of territory. Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union, Confederates wanted