Lincoln did not have the power to propose the employment of slaves, anymore than he had the power to emancipate them (which of course, he only did in the Northern states, remember?).
The actions of Sherman were to deal with what were a nuisance as a result of his destruction of private property- the new style of total war, which the South has never forgotten- at least not the real South (you know, people whose families were actually there).
History is written by the “victors”, and leaves out a great deal- in this case the radical republicans. The adroit manipulative comments of A. Lincoln, the railroad lawyer, about Stanton, the opportunistic Pinkerton’s railroad man are of no consequence. That Stanton then secured a payoff of a seat on the Supreme Court, having lined his pockets from the largesse of carpetbagging, using this to support Grant for President and voila’ the SC. What can be said about an Ohio anti-slavery Democrat who worked behind Lincoln’s back? Plenty- since he acted always in his own profit. Never forget the close work of Salmon Chase and Stanton. Seward stood in the way with his close friendship with Lincoln. The so-called “team of rivals” (hesitate to discuss another amateur moronic “historian” with an agenda, Doris Kearns Goodwin) got Lincoln killed.
In the real world, you get an actor to recite the lines and perform insane deeds- an empty vessel to do the work. And in the real world you kill the actor, and the one person who knew all about Stanton and his agents, Mary Surratt. The term is “cut-out”.
As regards one person’s beliefs about history- it is rather a different thing to have family that was there. Whatever you wish to believe in “your” reality is fine. It just isn’t the truth. Welcome to the march of Progressives.
Lincoln surviving was greatly in the South’s best interest. Oh yes, it was Stanton who drove the impeachment truck against Johnson. It really did pay ole Stanton in so many ways.
Pennsylvania and Ohio have a LOT to answer for.
No more - or less - than any president has to propose anything about anything. What's your point? Oh, and BTW - it's self-evident that he had not only to power to emancipate, but he had the prerogative to do so.
History is written by the “victors”, and leaves out a great deal- in this case the radical republicans.
And the myths by the losers. SOS
Welcome to the march of Progressives.
Lincoln stopped one dead in his tracks with davis. The thing about progs is that they're akin to buses - there's always another coming up right behind the last one.
First, the president can propose whatever he wishes.
Congress may or may not chose to dispose.
Second, even before the Civil War, the US recognized the right of a US military force to declare enemy property "contraband of war", and seize it.
During that war, many Confederate raids into Union states were specifically for that purpose -- to declare and seize Union "contraband".
Even the act of a US commander declaring enemy-owned slaves "free" had pre-war precedents.
That's why Lincoln aimed his 1863 Emancipation Proclamation specifically at states in rebellion, whose territories fell under Union Army control.
Lincoln's authority to do this was not questioned by Congress at the time, nor has it been since.
Instead, Congress passed and the states unanimously approved the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.
John S Mosby: "Sherman...his destruction of private property...
Confederate "total war" was practiced in Union states long before Sherman began his Georgia "march to the sea" (November 1864).
The biggest example is Early/McCausland's burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (July 1864), but there were others, including Quantrill's raid into Lawrence Kansas (August 1863).
So Sherman did not invent the idea -- Confederates did.
Finally, your comments on Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, are pure fantasy.
The truth of the matter is that Lincoln valued Stanton's services highly, and said so, while others continued to honor him for decades afterwards.
As for conspiracy-fantasies about "who shot Abe", this site lists seven major "theories" and several other more speculative suggestions.
It affirms that your Stanton-theory was fabricated out of thin air by an Austrian immigrant named Otto Eisenschiml in 1937, and has since been soundly debunked.
As for having "family that was there", I do have "family that was there" -- unionists in Confederate states who suffered deprivation and massacre at the hands of Confederates.
So I'm not so super-sympathetic to those oppressors.
cc: Sherman Logan -- comments?