{"id":2344,"date":"2024-01-20T14:31:51","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T14:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/?page_id=2344"},"modified":"2024-03-05T13:58:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T13:58:06","slug":"emancipation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/course-syllabus\/emancipation\/","title":{"rendered":"Emancipation"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Lincoln] wanted people to read the forthcoming proclamation as a conservative gesture, the latest move in a policy whose primary purpose remained the reestablishment of the Union.\u00a0 That was precisely how Frederick Douglass read it: as evidence that Lincoln cared a great deal about the restoration of the Union and very little about the abolition of slavery. –Oakes, p. 189<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Close Reading:\u00a0 Lincoln to Greeley (August 22, 1862)<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"1862<\/a>

Dueling public letters between the New York Tribune’s Horace Greeley (left) and President Lincoln via the Washington National Intelligencer (right)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On August 20, 1862, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, published a scathing open letter to Abraham Lincoln, entitled, “The Prayer of Twenty Millions.”<\/a>\u00a0 Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n

I do not intrude to tell you–for you must know already–that a great proportion of those who triumphed in your election, and of all who desire the unqualified suppression of the Rebellion now desolating our country, are sorely disappointed and deeply pained by the policy you seem to be pursuing with regard to the slaves of the Rebels. I write only to set succinctly and unmistakably before you what we require, what we think we have a right to expect, and of what we complain.\u00a0 We think you are strangely and disastrously remiss in the discharge of your official and imperative duty with regard to the emancipating provisions of the new Confiscation Act\u2026.Why these traitors should be treated with tenderness by you, to the prejudice of the dearest rights of loyal men, We cannot conceive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lincoln’s response, dated August 22, 1862, appeared in the Washington Daily National Intelligencer<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on the following day.\u00a0 The transcript below (with spelling errors and corrections) derives from his handwritten original.<\/p>\n

Executive Mansion,
\nWashington, August 22, 1862.<\/p>\n

Hon. Horace Greely [sic]:<\/p>\n

Dear Sir–<\/p>\n

\"Greeley\"

Horace Greeley (1811-1872)<\/p><\/div>\n

I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I \u201cseem to be pursuing\u201d as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.<\/p>\n

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” Broken eggs can never be mended, and the longer the breaking proceeds the more will be broken<\/span>. If there be any<\/span> those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save<\/em> slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be any<\/span> those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy<\/em> slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is<\/em> to save the Union, and is not<\/em> either to save or to destroy slavery [emphasis added].<\/strong>\u00a0 If I could save the Union without freeing any<\/em> slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all<\/em> the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not<\/em> believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less<\/em> whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more<\/em> whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.<\/p>\n

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official<\/em> duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal<\/em> wish that all men every where could be free.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yours,\u00a0 A. LINCOLN<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Timeline<\/strong><\/h1>\n