The North especially the Republican party has been talking at this point for some time
about the slave power the power of the political representatives of the slaves and the ones
you referred to earlier the Doughfaces their northern allies who act in office as though
they were slave owners or uh emissaries of the slave owners Franklin Pierce James Buchanan
two presidents before Lincoln could hardly have done more in favor of slavery uh had
they themselves been southerners so uh by eighteen sixty a majority of the population
is willing to support a party that says no more slave territory implicitly no more slave
states uh and hopefully in the future as a result no more slavery at least down the road
the Republicans also believe that the Constitution does not allow the Federal Government to touch
slavery within the states uh and even when the war begins uh Lincoln believes that the
war should not be looked upon as the ideal instrument through which to begin doing away
with slavery on the contrary uh wisdom dictates to us that we do as little as necessary to
interfere with slavery that's the way to win this war the most quickly this view of Lincoln
being described as as his saying that this was not entered into as a quote remorselessly
revolutionary conflict why did he feel tis way he says this in his message to Congress
in December eighteen sixty one Lincoln and again this is not very far fetched Lincoln
uh at least part of it is not very far fetched Lincoln knows that he's been elected to office
by about fifty four percent of the northern electorate but in a war he needs more than
fifty four percent of the northern population to support that war he needs the population
as a whole to support that war he needs the other forty six percent as well and therefore
can't uh declare this a war over slavery because that huge minority will presumably not go
along with a war over slavery they will go along for a war to preserve the union which
they value very highly as the necessary foundation for the republic just if I may just interject
this was a major uh uh situation for lack of a better word with regard to the border
states was it not that's in the second piece that's precisely the second piece of the logic
four slave states remain in the Union uh and Lincoln believes that holding them especially
Kentucky uh for a variety of reasons including military geographical it's crucial terrain
uh giving us access to the Confederacy and if we lose this it turns into a tremendous
advantage for the Confederacy giving them access to the heartland of the free north
uh so we need to hold onto Kentucky and we need to hold onto Missouri and Maryland and
even Delaware uh which still has almost two thousand slaves we need to hold onto these
places and in order to do that we need the consent of the slave owners who are the political
leadership there as they are in every other state where slavery exists so wee need to
mollify them we need to keep them happy and in order to keep them happy we need to promise
them that we will not touch slavery even in the Confederate states which is by the way
what the representatives of the border states are demanding in Congress we'' support you
but not if you start touching slavery even in the heartland of our professed enemy so
what persuaded this view this view or these people from holding this view as the war went
on what caused them to change their minds or did Lincoln just say the hell with it well
there's one third piece of this uh of this logic which is false and which is eventually
proven false and that is the assumption that a majority of southern white's are actually
loyal including the slave owners that somehow they have simply been out maneuvered or bullied
or tricked into silence or uh permitting their states to secede but that if we're careful
in fighting this war and don't step on their toes they will eventually rouse themselves
mobilize themselves retake control of their states and come back into the Union voluntarily
so that's the first piece of this logic that disproves itself uh after a year of war all
uh theater commanders are basically saying we can't find these so called Unionist slave
owners right no matter where we go the population is uh hostile to us and that's because most
of the fighting is taking place in the low country in the plantation districts not in
the up country in fact there are sections of the South where there are Unionists but
it's not where the slave owners congregate it's Western Virginia Eastern Tennessee places
like that that's not where Union armies are fighting they're fighting in the plantation
districts the heartland and their officers Union officers are saying you know no matter
where we go the only friends we find are the Blacks This excerpt is brought to you by the
Massachusetts School of Law