Lincoln and the Peculiar Institution

[Richard Lawrence Miller]

Wow, here is a challenge to my ability to be succinct .

Yes, Lincoln publicly criticized John Brown. Lincoln believed that the law had to be obeyed in efforts to end slavery.

Regarding the Constitution's treatment of slavery, Lincoln argued that the Founding Fathers were embarrassed by the institution and sought to put it on the road to extinction, that the Constitution sought to end slavery rather than perpetuate it.

Lincoln declared that the Dred Scott decision was part of a conspiracy to make slavery legal everywhere in the United States, to end the right of free states to forbid slavery within their boundaries.

The Emancipation Proclamation reflected his belief that the law had to be obeyed when seeking to eliminate slavery. Until then he thought that he had no legal right to end slavery anywhere in the United States. But when the proper moment arrived, he exercised war powers available to the commander-in-chief to liberate slaves in areas that were engaged in military revolt, a liberation that became real as the Union army advanced. He did not, however, believe he could end slavery in loyal slave states. For that, he advocated the 13th Amendment.