"Our One Common Country" author talk in Stratford, CT

[L Verge]

Eva - I think I understand your point that Lincoln was hesitant about issuing the Emancipation Proclamation (at least at that point), BUT he was being "forced" into doing it by others. And, I would hazard a guess that those others included the Republican political machinery that was smelling an election coming up in 1864 that they needed to win. In order to win, they needed to please influential supporters - many of whom were strong abolitionists. Money and politics are a dangerous combination, IMO.

Lincoln may have been President of the United States, but that doesn't mean he acted alone. There were assorted pressures brought on him throughout his term. From the standpoint of prestige, wealth, influence, and abolition, I would guess that William H. Seward was one of the stronger pressures in the fall of 1862. Not only did he fit those four criteria I just listed, but Seward (as Secretary of State) had to do what he could to keep foreign powers, especially Great Britain, from coming to any further aid with the Confederacy. The slavery issue was a big factor in that.

I also wonder if Lincoln didn't hesitate a bit because he knew that the common folk (who comprised the great majority of the Union foot soldiers) would balk at the thought of emancipating those who would, at some point, compete with them in the work place. By stopping Lee's first advance into Northern territory, he probably had the soldiers feeling a little relieved -- and now he was going to hit them with this. The war was no longer about just reunification. His soldiers were being asked to fight for something that they might not believe in.

Would it be rude of me to suggest that Mr. Lincoln wasn't taking orders from God or his wife? Since I consider him a prime pragmatist (as I have said before), he was reluctantly following his political instincts.