More Important than the Cabinet Council on Emancipation

[David Lockmiller]

In the opinion of President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, what meeting during President Lincoln's administration was more important than the Cabinet Council on Emancipation? This observation by the Secretary of State was made despite the fact that the Secretary himself was aware of the prominent role that he himself had played in promulgating the Emancipation Proclamation.

[Steve]

The decision to resuply Ft. Sumter just before the start of the war?

[Gene C]

I agree with Steve, but my second guess would be the decision regarding the Trent Affair.

[David Lockmiller]

Steve and Gene, you are both correct.

Seward had a discussion with F. B. Carpenter on this issue:

"Slavery has been in fact but an incident in the history of the nation, inevitably bound to perish in the progress of intelligence. Future generations will scarcely credit the record that such an institution ever existed here; or existing, that it ever lived a day under such a government. But suppose, for one moment, the Republic destroyed. With it is bound up not alone the destiny of a race, but the best hopes of mankind. . . . The salvation of the nation is, then, of vastly more consequence than the destruction of slavery. Had you consulted me for a subject to paint, I should not have given you the Cabinet Council on Emancipation, but the meeting which took place when the news came of the attack upon Sumter, when the first measures were organized for the restoration of the national authority. That was the crisis in the history of this Administration -- not the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation."

There is much more to this, including the persuasive disputing response of F.B. Carpenter. See "Six Months at the White House" pages 72-75.

[AussieMick]

Wasnt it Seward that (IMO) had a brain snap over the issue of re-supplying Fort Sumter ?

I guess the point I'm making is that Seward is speaking from a biased standpoint ... yes, a very relevant and knowledgeable one , but nevertheless he was so close to the action and so deeply committed to the action he thought correct that he would inevitably say Sumpter was more important than the Emancipation Council.

I think its comparing apples with oranges. Sumpter was a crisis event involving many meetings and several decisions with an increasing pressure for something to happen. The Emancipation Council was a slow-burning issue with only one possible outcome ... but a question as to when that would occur and ... what would be the ramifications. The importance of this question was basically the fundamental principle of the war ... and what the USA would become. Sumpter was a flashpoint. The Emancipation was a nation-changing event. (OK, so was the Civil War ... but in a negative sense )

David Donald writes 'he (Lincoln) did not acknowledge that his ineffectual leadership contributed to the crisis' (p.293, Lincoln). I'd suggest that Lincoln in fact showed considerable leadership at a time when most (all other?) people would have been a shivering wreck.
There are parallels perhaps with Pres. Kennedy and the Cuban Bay of Pigs.