Did Lincoln win the presidency on the platform that he was going to free the slaves?

Question

Seems like it is always a movement from the people that changes American for the better.

Answer 1

Just because Lincoln didn't openly advocate the emacapation of slavery, or openly use his power as president for that purpose doesn't, though, suggest that he was for slavery or had neutral feelings for it. Lincoln, as you learn in a lot of books, was an amazing state's man that knew how people worked. He was wise, and held his cards close to lead the country in the direction that he believed was best.

Answer 2

Read a book entitled "The South Was Right" - It explains in detail the true reasons for this war. This war was about States Rights. Article 9 of the confederate states constitution made it illegal for the importation of slaves into the south. In fact the good city of Boston was the major harbor that imported slaves. All 3 of the major shipping industries back then imported slaves to Boston. A fact few people even know is that President Jefferson Davis had an adopted son named Jim Limber - An African American child. Davis educated him in the best schools and treated him as a son. When the North Rolled in Jim Limber was taken away by Yankee Soldiers and never seen again. Davis opposed slavery and not a single Confederate General owned a slave. The Generals of the North owned many. Ulysses S. Grant owned 250 slaves during the war for Southern Independence - When ordered by President Lincoln to free them he refused coining the phrase " Good help is hard to find"

Answer 3

Lincoln did not win the presidency on a platform to free the slaves. However, he also was not vehemently pro-slavery. And in the 1860 election, Lincoln, a Northerner from Illinois, was elected without the support of a single Southern state. So although he did not run at an anti-slavery platform, per se, Lincoln's views on states' rights and slavery were not in line with the people of the South. This election occurred before the Southern states left the Union.
Many historians state that Lincoln was always personally opposed to slavery, but this is a matter of some conjecture.

Answer 4

No. Lincoln avoided the topic of slavery during the debates prior to the election like the plague. He was asked about his views at one point, and he said something to the effect of: "If I could preserve the Union without freeing the slaves, I would do it; if I could preserve the Union by freeing some of the slaves, I would do it; if I could preserve the Union by freeing all of the slaves, I would do it." As it was, he didn't free the slaves until January 1863 with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation; even then, the EP only freed the slaves in the Southern states; it did not outlaw slavery entirely. This didn't happen until December 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

As for "Uncle Tom's Cabin," this ludicrous work of fiction was written by a woman who had never been to the South, never seen a cotton plantation, never talked to a slaveholder or a plantation owner, and did absolutely NO research on the topic whatsoever. She took what she had been told by friends and what she had read in Abolitionists newspapers and concocted a story around it. Unfortunately, the uninformed people of the North took the book as the unvarnished truth, while the people of the South recognized it for what it was - a pack of lies.

The book had very little impact on what started the war. It contributed to the hard feelings between North and South, but the seeds of war had been sown long before that fairy tale was published.

A footnote to Ronald T: You are incorrect in your statments about who owned slaves and who didn't as far as general officers goes. Gen Robert E. Lee owned slaves before the war; this is a documented fact. His wife also owned slaves; they were willed to her with instructions that they be freed within 5 years. The Lees emancipated all of their slaves before the war started.

Gen Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson owned a slave that he took with him on campaign, as did Gen J.E.B. Stuart. Stuart's slave was well-known for his talent at playing the banjo, and he remained with the general even after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Gen Ulysses Grant owned 50 slaves, not 250, and he freed them long before the war started. Gen Sherman owned slaves at one time, but also freed them before the war.

I've read "The South Was Right!" twice, and while I'll agree that the brothers who wrote it provide lots of solid, factual, and little-known information, I'll also say that they obviously have an agenda in writing the book which, in my opinion, takes away from the authority of the facts within.

Answer 5

Simply put - No. In fact, the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery but states rights - slavery was an ancillary point.

Answer 6

Oh, honey, no. That was a VERY inflamatory issue back then. I would recommend reading Uncle Tom's Cabin for a great political commentary disguised as fiction. They say it was the catalyst for the whole civil war.

Answer 7

No he didn't say anything about freeing the slaves till hundreds of thousands of white people had died and it was near the end of the war

Answer 8

No he did not, read you history