General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ...and then a man rode through the lines bearing a white flag. [View all]KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)emancipation (whether immediate or otherwise) before being elected. Lincoln proposed before his election simply to contain slavery within its current borders and not allow it to expand its reach into any of the new 'western' (now mid-western) territories.
It's not Lincoln's fault that a bunch of treasonous Southern hot heads decided to secede from the Union without so much as a by your leave. I would remind you that the South fired the first shots at Fort Sumter. The South deserved everything it got and then some. In my opinion, Sherman and the radical Republicans did not go far enough. The lands of the treasonous plantaiton owners and all property they owned should have been forfeit, clear title thereof transferred to the freed bondsmen. Force those mint julep swilling parasites to work for a living. And recompense the bondsmen for the century's long theft of their labor and lives.