Abraham Lincoln And Slavery: Necessary Or Justified?

As Bennett states in his article, Lincoln was opposed to the extension of slavery not out of compassion for suffering black people, but out of devotion to the interests of white people. In his Charlston speech, Lincoln stated, “I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black race, . . . I will say there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” The speech itself shows that Lincoln was opposed to every aspect of the Emancipation Proclamation that he himself issued. Not only that, but Lincoln felt pressured to issue the Emancipation Proclamation by Radical Republicans who were pushing for it to be passed. Furthermore, if Lincoln had not issued the Proclamation, the congress would have done it. Lincoln did not want to give up his power as a president, and signed the document himself. In response to the proclamation, Bennett writes, Lincoln “freed” slaves where he had no power and left them in chains where he had power (page 137). In Lincoln and Colonization, by Richard Blackett, a historian of the abolition movement, The pressures of war forced his hand. As a result, the proclamation contained so many restrictions that observers questioned its effectiveness (page 20).

He still did not think blacks should have the right to vote, hold political offices, or marry white people. He also still believed physical differences between the two races would prevent them from living together socially and politically (186). Lincoln was against whites benefitting from slave labor and did feel that blacks should be able to benefit from the fruits of their own labor. According to Dinesh D’Souza in her article “Abraham Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite, or Consummate Statesman”, he was not, however, an abolitionist. Abolitionists wanted an immediate end to slavery and believed the rights of slaves should not be compromised and that they “had a duty to defend freedom, unreservedly, and careless of the consequences” (3).

The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)

Southern states left the Union because they thought they had more power than the Federal Government. “Many Southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers, which the federal government cannot legally deny”(Doc 5). This means that Southerners thought that the Federal Government could not deny their right to have slavery so they left. Southern states left the Union because Abraham Lincoln banned slavery and it was their only way to make a

The Union, backed by President Abraham Lincoln, was trying to abolish slavery. The South found this to be oppressive and used their right to "throw off such Government" and, one by one,

This shows that South Carolina had the right to secede because it was a sovereign state. It also shows how the South should have had the right to decide whether they would want to secede from the country or not. Another example is that when the Southern states joined the Union, it was voluntarily (Appleby et.al 556). “Nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of the union of the states being permanent.” (http:/civilwar.bluegrass.net). This shows that they should have the right to leave the Union if they choose to. They had this right because the South had no bind with the Union stating that they had to stay except for the United States constitution in which the North had already violated. Even though the United States constitution was what they looked at as a contract, the Union already desecrated its’ terms before this dispute. It also shows how the right was their own and the government could not control their choices in staying or not. These reasons and examples show how the South had to right to secede because of various reasons regarding the political state the government was in.

Lincoln was always against slavery. He never thought of slaves as better than white Americans, but still thought they should be considered as equal to the law. Lincoln agreed with the founding fathers' phrase “All men are created equal,” which he also thought that it should have applied to black and white people. “The Declaration and the Constitution enshrined these rights: the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. In essence, to Lincoln this implied the right to be free, to enjoy the fruits of his labour, to have a family and to acquire property.”

Abraham Lincoln always demonstrated moral opposition to the acts of slavery both in public and private. He wanted to bring about the extinction of slavery through inhibiting its expansion into the USA territory through proposing the compensated emancipation during his early presidency. He supported the platform for the Republican Party of 1860 that believed slavery should not be allowed to expand into other territories in America (Sudbury, 2008). He believed that the widespread of slavery in the new western lands would inhibit the perspective of free labor on the America’s free soil and wanted peace to reign in the states through the end of slavery. Politically, Lincoln was attacked as an abolitionist but he did not consider himself as one. However, he believed that it was prudent to administer slow ending of the aspects of slavery by gradual emancipation and colonization by volunteering rather than the means of abolitionist that demanded the immediate end of slavery without compensating the owners (Zietlow,

While admitting that he had no right to interfere with the institution of Slavery, Abraham Lincoln urged for the establishment of better strategies of handling the issue and solving the primary differences between the regions without necessarily having to secede. He believed that while different States had the rights to manage their affairs and recruit their army, seceding from the Union was not an

Slavery is a legal system in which humans can be treated as property. They can be owned, bought, sold, and do not have a say in the fate that is chosen for them. The Southerners claimed to have many reasons for seceding, but their main dilemma was slavery. When the Northerners began to contradict slavery, the South became petrified. They didn’t consider it fair for the government to control how they lived. Slave labor played an important role in the Northerners lives, and when they felt as though they were being attacked, they sensed the need to withdraw from the United States.

For most of his life, Abraham Lincoln abhorred slavery. He did not believe in the expansion of slavery, this coincided with his personal values, and the idea the forefathers held, that slavery would eventually end. However, he believed that the institution of slavery should be allowed where it already existed. In fact, during his early presidency he enforced pro-slavery laws to uphold what was already in the constitution. Though he was explicit in his plans to not interfere with slavery, southern states tried to secede in fear. The Civil war led Lincoln to adopt his personal views on slavery as a political maneuver to save the North in the war.

Abraham was born a poor farmhand boy in Kentucky, but he moved from small cabins in Kentucky, Indiana, and finally settled in Illinois. He was a farmhand for his father in these states and didn’t have much exposure to slavery, although, these states did have black/slave laws. Lincoln got his first dose of slavery at the age of eighteen when he was hired to take a flatboat down to New Orleans. I quote from Lincoln: A Photobiography “Lincoln would never forget the site of black men, women, and children being driven along in chains and being auctioned off like cattle.” This still didn’t change his “opinion” on slavery (he didn’t have one).

The southern states wanted to have their own nation and wanted to keep slavery alive, was unable to decide on laws. The north did not want the country to be broken apart. In the election of 1860 Abraham Lincoln stated that he wanted to stop the spread of slavery. The southern states said that if Lincoln won, they would secede and leave the union. The southern states seceded from the union after Lincoln was elected.

To begin, Abraham Lincoln’s view on slavery is that he thought that slavery was injustice. This means that he thought that blacks should not have to be slaves because it is wrong. In source 1 the text states, "slavery was founded on both injustice and bad policy. Ten years later as a congressman he voted with his party to stop the spread of slavery, and he introduced a bill to stop slavery in the nation's capitol.” This quote means that Abraham Lincoln thought that

Abraham Lincolns did not support the idea of slavery. Abraham Lincoln believed that it the idea of slavery was not morally correct. Although, Abraham Lincoln did want slavery to be put to an end he was not an abolitionist. Abraham Lincoln was against slavery but he did not support the quality between a white man and a black man. Abraham Lincoln was able to make his thoughts extremely clearly during one of his debates he had at Charleston, Illinois, in September 18th in 1853 (Pruitt 3). Abraham Lincoln was accused of being for negro equality by U.S Senate, Stephen Douglas. Abraham quickly defended himself to the accusation that was brought up to him saying. “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races”. Abraham Lincoln than started to discuss about how he did not truly believe black people should be given the right to be able to vote in political elections, he also believed that black people should not have the right to have the right to serve juries, and than he continued to discuss how he thought that black and white people should not