Abraham Lincoln and the Soul of America

First, for all his political life, Lincoln deplored slavery. While he, for a time, experimented with the idea of black colonization and fell short of endorsing full racial integration, Lincoln was quite progressive for his time and sincerely believed that slavery must end. He clearly regarded blacks as equal to whites insofar as their right to "enjoy the fruit of their labor" was concerned. And he would go on to call for black citizenship and voting rights in the United States toward the end of his presidency.

Why then did he make such an assurance to the South in 1861? Why compromise with evil?

For one thing, Lincoln was correct that he lacked the legal and constitutional standing to interfere with slavery in the southern states. Rightly or wrongly, the United States Constitution did protect slavery to some extent in its original form, and it most certainly and emphatically limited the power of the federal government in intervene in state matters. Having just taken an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States," it is unreasonable for anyone today to expect that Lincoln should've acted outside the law to bring about an end to slavery - no matter how dreadful the practice.

Lincoln was, after all, a lawyer. And his fidelity to the law is what separated him from many northern abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison (who at one point brazenly burned a copy of the Constitution to protest its tacit allowance for slavery).

Even when the Civil War was thrust upon him and he quite rightly understood that slavery must end in order to fully restore the Union, he still worked within the parameters of the law. His Emancipation Proclamation excluded those states and territories loyal to the Union because, among other reasons, he had little choice. He simply did not have the authority, not even as Commander-in-Chief, to circumvent the Constitution and trespass on the rights of loyal states. He could take action to free the slaves of the rebellious South, because striking at the heart of the Confederate economy was a valid wartime strategy. This rationale would not apply to loyal slave states such as Maryland.

Critics of Lincoln from the political Left and Right argue that his narrow Emancipation Proclamation proves that he only played the slavery issue for political and diplomatic gain. Yet this interpretation ignores the legal issues at stake. Far more indicative of Lincoln's

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