The Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln’s Many Second Thoughts

The ending of slavery is associated most often with President Abraham Lincoln. Although personally opposed to slavery, Lincoln was even more opposed to secession and the disintegration of the American union. On many occasions after signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln expressed in his own correspondence and in conversations recorded by others a readiness to renege on emancipation in exchange for the Confederate states’ returning to the Union. Jefferson Davis’s commitment to Southern independence, however, was stronger by far than Abraham Lincoln’s commitment to emancipation. Although willing to break his promise to end slavery, Lincoln could do nothing to convince Davis to accept this concession by returning to the Union. Davis’s absolute devotion to Southern nationhood, in this sense, forced upon Lincoln the title of Great Emancipator.