The debates between the two men, preceding the election, were followed with keen interest all over the country. Lincoln argued with great power against the spread of slavery into the new States, and although he lost the election, he won such favorable notice that two years later a greater honor came to him. In 1860, the Republican National Convention, which met at Chicago, nominated him as its candidate for President, and a few months later he was elected to that office.
The agitation over slavery was growing more and more bitter, and when Lincoln was elected some of the Southern States threatened to go out of the Union. They claimed that it was their right to decide for themselves whether they should secede. On the other hand, the North declared that no State could secede without the consent of the other States.
Before Lincoln was inaugurated seven of the Southern States had carried out their threat to secede, calling themselves the Confederate States of America.** Jefferson Davis was chosen president and Alexander H. Stephens vice-president. The seven cotton States hoped that they would be joined by the other eight slave States, but only four of these eight seceded. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri remained loyal to the Union. The excitement everywhere was intense. Many people regretted that a man of larger experience than Lincoln had not been chosen to be at the head of the government. They were anxious lest this plain man of the people, this awkward backwoodsman, should not be able to lead the nation in those dark and troubled days. But, little as they trusted him, he was well fitted for the work that lay before him.
His inauguration was but a few weeks over when the Civil War began. We cannot here pause for full accounts of all Lincoln’s trials and difficulties in this fearful struggle. During those four fateful years, 1861-1865, his burdens were almost overwhelming. But, like Washington, he believed that “right makes might” and must prevail, and this belief sustained him.
Although his whole nature revolted against slavery, he had no power to do away with it in the States where it existed, for by his office he was sworn to defend the Constitution. “My great purpose,” he said, “is to save the Union, and not to destroy slavery.”
But as the war went on he became certain that the slaves, by remaining on the plantations and producing food for the Southern soldiers, were aiding the Southern cause. He therefore determined to set the slaves free in all the territory where people were fighting to break up the Union, just as far as it was conquered by Union troops. “As commander-in-chief of the Union armies,” he reasoned, “I have a right to do this as a war measure.” The famous state paper in which Lincoln declared that such slaves were free was called the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863).
This freeing of a part of the slaves not only hastened the end of the war but led, after its close, to the final emancipation of all the slaves. We should remember that the man who did most to bring about this result was Abraham Lincoln, whose name has gone down in history as the great emancipator.
Lincoln Visiting Wounded Soldiers.
Passing over the events of the war, which we shall consider later in connection with its great generals, let us look ahead two years.