Cicero

Apparently, simile is lost on me.

Put that way, I agree with you.

PopeInTheWoods

I think we're probably more in agreement than we initially thought, it's just a matter of us jumping to opposition. Hey, it's what PD is all about.

I objected to this part of your first post:

You seemed to imply that Lincoln didn't care about slavery at all. I think that Lincoln's writings and speeches make it clear that, all other things being equal, he would have preferred that slavery go away. The Civil War provided Lincoln with the opportunity to act on that preference, since he no longer had to worry about driving the South into rebellion. The way you explained it later (preserving the Union was primary) makes much more sense.

Lincoln had the power and authority to free blacks in the South because any Federal authority there came at bayonet point courtesy of the Union Army, of which he was Commander-in-Chief. He had the (somewhat more questionable) power and authority to suspend habeas corpus because doing so mainly affected the executive branch (police, prosecutors, and such) which he headed, and people in custody. The judicial branch and general populace more or less went along, or at least didn't object strongly enough to bring down the Federal gov't. But freeing the Northern slaves by executive order would have been much more difficult to enforce, and would have been strongly objected to by the legislature and judiciary, as well as a good portion of the populace (possibly more secessions). In short, Lincoln probably couldn't have gotten away with it.

Again, I don't think we're too far off in our views here. My point is that just because Lincoln was restrained by the political reality of the situation, it doesn't mean he wasn't anti-slavery.

Andy

GaryP

I agree to not disagree very much!

Lincoln was indeed a great man. I am just fascinated by his life. If only there was another Lincoln around today.

But then, the Gettysburg address lasted more than 2 minutes. Too long for Dan Rather et al. !