Plausibly Live! - The Official Podcast Of The Dave Bowman Show

If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. – Abraham Lincoln, August 22nd, 1862 While Lincoln wrote those words in 1862, following them up with his Emancipation Proclamation, the reality was that he had no viable way to actually enforce them. Days earlier, the Union had “won” the Battle at Antietam Creek, although “win” might generous. On the bloodiest day in American history, the Army of the Potomac had blunted Robert E Lee’s army’s advance into Maryland. Alas, it had failed to win a decisive victory, or to follow up on the matter. The battle had been just enough to give Lincoln the opening he needed. Believing that the nation needed a better reason to continue the war, he saw the permanent end of s