Freedom from Servitude

Long before the Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln had already been contemplating making moves to weaken American slavery. Even though he had not ever been an abolitionist in his politics, he had always regarded slavery as “an unqualified evil” whose eventual extirpation was an ultimate end for which he ardently wished. By July 1862, he was convinced that the time had come for the national government to adopt a strongly antislavery position and that such a position could be justified both on military grounds (the freed slaves could participate in the war effort) and on diplomatic ones (to attract support from Europe). He had discussed the possibility of an Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet and received a decidedly mixed response from them. Several feared anarchy in the South and possible foreign intervention.