President Abraham Lincoln was faced with a monumental challenge during his two terms as Commander-in-chief of the United States: reuniting the shattered halves of the Union. This was his sole purpose in fighting the Civil War—nothing more, nothing less. However, Lincoln was flexible enough to accommodate changes to the war plan if they would help achieve the ultimate goal of preserving the Union. On January 1, 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, making the abolition of slavery, as well as the preservation of the Union a war aim. Lincoln freed the slaves to weaken the Southern resistance, strengthen the Federal government, and encourage free blacks to fight in the Union army, thus preserving the Union.
President Lincoln once said that if he could save the Union without freeing any slave he would do it. However, Lincoln soon realized that freeing the slaves could provide a huge advantage for the North both economically and politically. Economically, the South came to rely on slave labor so much that their entire economy would collapse without it. Lincoln realized this in 1862 when he said that “slavery is the root of the rebellion” (Document B). By issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln purpose was that slaves living on Southern plantations would revolt against their masters, thereby “…weakening the rebels by drawing off their labor supply” (Document B). In a war as volatile as the Civil War, a small economic difference like this could tip the scale in the favor of Lincoln and the Union. Furthermore, Lincoln realized that the Proclamation would benefit the United States’ foreign relations in Europe. As Lincoln hoped, the Proclamation turned the foreign popular opinion in the favor of the Union and its new anti-slavery cause. This shift in war goals ended any hope that the Confederacy had of receiving political and financial support from anti-slavery countries like France or Britain. In Document K Fredrick Douglass confirms Lincoln and his...