In many ways, it’s possible to understand the rise of the abolitionist movement as a cause of the Civil War. The abolitionist movement was radical not only in its aims, but it was radical in its methods, as well. The movement had as its goal nothing short of the immediate and instantaneous ending of slavery. While the goals of the abolitionist movement may have been noble, it was ironically this movement that is largely responsible for the bloody conflict of the American Civil War.
To understand how the rise of the abolitionist movement can be seen as a cause of the Civil War, it’s important to understand how the abolitionist movement was different in its aims. For decades, since the founding of the United States and even going back to colonial times, there had been a strong antislavery movement in the country. While it was centered in the North, there were many people opposed to slavery in the Southern states, as well.
This antislavery movement sought to end slavery legally and legitimately, through the course of law. They were strong proponents of legislation that would stop the expansion of slavery, for example. There were those in the antislavery movement that proposed legislation that would actually purchase the freedom of slaves, as had happened in Europe. This sort of solution would have ended slavery, but done it without the violence and death that the Civil War brought.
In contrast, the abolitionist movement sought to end slavery by any means necessary. So, famous abolitionist John Brown resorted to theft, and to attacks on federal officers, in his effort to end slavery. The radical abolitionists had no interested in ending slavery in a peaceful or legal way. They wanted to end slavery at the point of the bayonet.
Much has been written in regard to Abraham Lincoln and his connection to the abolitionist movement. At the time of Lincoln’s election, there were many people in the south who recognized that the newly-formed Republican part was, in many was, the party of abolition. While there were some Republicans who would have preferred to end slavery legally, the party platform called for the immediate eradication of slavery.
It is Lincoln’s abolitionist position, or at least the theory that he was beholden to abolitionists for his election, that led the South to secede. They believed (correctly) that Lincoln would try to forcibly end slavery – which he did with the Emancipation Proclamation. Indeed it is the Emancipation Proclamation that demonstrates what it was the South feared – that the abolitionist movement would overtake the presidency.
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This suggestion that the abolition movement was a cause of the civil war is like saying that Poland caused WW2. If only Poland had kept their mouths shut as the Nazi’s invaded, we could all have been spared.
Slavery was enshrined in the Constitution. By 1860 there were abolitionists, and then there were Abolitionists. Pretty much the entire planet was moving rapidly toward abolition, though not enough to join a “movement” that called for the sudden eradication of slavery by fiat. These were the Abolitionists that you speak of, but they were never a powerful force in America.
Lincoln was a small “a” abolitionist but he knew that a Constitutional Amendment to eradicate slavery was impossible so therefore had no interest in going there. Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation as a tool to win the Civil War, NOT to free the slaves. Indeed, that proclamation allowed slavery in the Union States to continue.
And that proclamation doubtless worked. England wanted like Hell to enter the war on the side of the Confederacy and they came damn close. Once the Proclamation was released however, Lincoln became a hero all across Europe leaving it impossible for the British Government to create a ruse to enter the war against Lincoln.
I don’t fault you for your erroneous conclusions on the Civil War. There are powerful forces still at play to revise history on that war. To somehow make it look like the South was somehow noble in that endeavor. (Individual soldiers doubtlessly gave their lives for what they were manipulated into thinking by their leaders to be some kind of noble cause. But the decisions of the leadership that brought that war on this nation was about one thing and one thing only.. the continuation of very cheap labor.. AKA slavery. Any attempt to argue otherwise is revisionism, pure and simply.)
Another thing about Lincoln. At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln thought that the black man was clearly inferior to the white man. By the end of the war, it seems that his opinion had changed markedly.
Lincoln did not rest with the Emancipation Proclamation. which as I pointed out above was a tool to end the Civil War. It was not an attempt to end slavery as a primary objective. And because Lincoln knew that slavery was enshrined in the Constitution, he knew that the Emancipation would probably NOT survive the war, though I believe he argued that it would. Thus, he knew the nation needed that Constitutional Amendment. But he also knew that in 1862, the nation was still not ready for the freeing of slaves. Indeed, the Democrats often tried to portray Lincoln as caring more about slavery than about the dieing of thousands of soldiers on the battlefield. So Lincoln had to tread very carefully, while at the same time appeasing the Radical Republicans. Had he moved too quickly on Slavery, the Democrats could use this in any next election. Indeed, thru much of 1864, Lincoln was doubtful of his own re-election.
Well, by the end of 1864, it was looking like the US might indeed win the war outright, and the nation was more and more moving towards the full eradication of slavery and even to allow “Some” blacks to vote. The exceptional skill and bravery of Negro Battalions in the war helped strengthen that notion.
So, by the end of 1864, and only after his reelection, Lincoln felt the nation was ready to end slavery, so gave his imprimatur to the 13th Amendment. (Had Sherman not won Atlanta prior to the election, Lincoln probably would not have been re-elected. And had the nation gotten wind of the 13th Amendment prior to the election, AND Sherman had not taken Atlanta, Lincoln absolutely would not have been reelected. Thus, the South would have re-entered the Union with slavery intact.
But history turned out differently and the 13th Amendment was introduced and passed by Congress in January of 1864 while Lincoln was still President, and the war was still going on. Then it needed 3/4ths of the 36 states to become law. 20 states passed the Amendment before Lincoln died in April of 1865. It needed another 6 before it became law, though the only reason it needed so many was because all the Southern States were still being counted as part of the total. It’s final passage was in December of 1865.
(So I would argue that Lincoln did free the slaves with the 13th Amendment and the fact that it was still 6 states short at his death an inconsequential detail.)
I’d like to point out that the Republican party back in the 1860s and 70s was quite Socialist in it’s ideas. And it was the Democratic party back then that was very much laissez faire Capitalistic — thus very much pro the property owners of slaves. Today, it’s the Republican party that cleaves to laissez faire, while even the modern Democratic party is not any where near as socialist as the Republican party of the 1860s.
oops, the 13th Amendment was passed in January of 1865, not 1864 like I wrote above.
mario’s comment brought me back to this blog. I have another interesting comment about the Emancipation Proclamation.
As I said above, slavery is enshrined in our Constitution. Lincoln knew this and knew that overturning slavery would require a constitutional amendment. But the South was using slaves as a weapon of war against the north. Thus, Lincoln used another part of the Constitution, – his WAR POWERS as Commander in Chief – to legally justify the Emancipation. So technically, the Proclamation was a tool to win the war, NOT to free the slaves. Though it was an extremely popular move and the radical wing of his party was extremely happy.
But that’s not what I wanted to add here. Not only did the Emancipation Proclamation NOT APPLY to the Northern states, nor did it even apply to Washington DC, which still had slavery at the time. But the Emancipation Proclamation also DID NOT APPLY to those southern states that were occupied by Northern troops at the time the Proclamation was enacted. That’s right, the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to those Confederate States that were now occupied territory!
Why not? Because again, Lincoln knew that the President did not have the power to override the Constitution, and slavery was enshrined in that Constitution. And in occupied territory, he could no longer use his war powers as a legal justification for emancipation.
However, it was already the law that once a slave became free, they could (generally) not be re-enslaved. Thus, as the Union army advanced, slaves in those areas could not be re-enslaved.
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