Do you think the Emancipation Proclamation an “act of justice” or merely a military strategy? Why?
Abolitionists made up a small faction of the Republican Party. A larger amount of the Party (including Abraham Lincoln) were “Free-Soilers,” those wanting to control the spread of slavery in the new territories. Attitudes certainly did change a couple years into the Civil War once Union Army soldiers saw “the horrors” of slavery. It is certainly possible that Lincoln’s mind was leaning toward “justice,” however at the war’s beginning he simply wanted to preserve the Union. If that meant freeing no slaves, then OK. Notice that the Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the rebellious States. (About halfway through the Proclamation Lincoln states which areas were to be emancipated). As for the military strategy…it’s quite simple; take away the Southern economic engine (slave labor) and the South will suffer greatly. Changing an economic system that rapidly will cripple an economy.
