President Lincoln vignettes in F.B. Carpenter's "Six Months at the White House"

[David Lockmiller]

(10-24-2023 08:23 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  

Quote:Were not both authors using the same basic historical materials in order to write on the same subject?

So what? One of the first things you learn in a historical methods class is that presenting evidence alone is not what makes history but rather the interpretation and analysis of that evidence . . . .

Best
Rob

I agree.

The question considered by both Pulitzer Prize winning historian authors: What was the mindset of Secretary of State Seward at the time of issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862?

Both authors addressed this question after considering basically the same historical evidence.

Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals, at pages 467-68 reads as follows:

William Henry Seward's mode of intricate analysis produced a characteristically complex reaction to the proclamation. After the others had spoken, he expressed his worry that the proclamation might provoke a racial war in the South so disruptive to cotton that the ruling classes in England and France would intervene to protect their economic interests. As secretary of state, Seward was particularly sensitive to the threat of European intervention. Curiously, despite his greater access to intelligence from abroad, Seward failed to grasp what Lincoln intuitively understood: that once the Union truly committed itself to emancipation, the masses in Europe, who regarded slavery as an evil demanding eradication, would not be easily maneuvered into supporting the South.

. . . . Seward's practical focus underestimated the proclamation's power to unleash the moral fervor of the North and keep the Republican Party united by making freedom for the slaves an avowed objective of the war.

Despite his concerns about the effect of the proclamation, Seward had no thought of opposing it. Once Lincoln had made up his mind, Seward was steadfast in his loyalty to him. He demurred only on the issue of timing.

Burton Hendrick in his book Lincoln's War Cabinet, at page 363, has a quite different interpretation of the same event after quoting extensively from Carpenter's book:

"It seems a fair assumption, in view of Seward's evident hostility to emancipation, that he was seeking delay, hoping perhaps that time and events would cause the President to rescind his unhappy mistake."

Let the reader decide for herself or himself. Thus far, the vote is tied at one.