the FACT is that NONE iof you unionist fanatics will accept as FACT, NOTHING (no matter how well documented/peer-reviewed/footnoted), IF the facts make the DAMNyankees/radical unionists LOOK stupid/immoral/amoral/hypocritical or ANYTHING BUT "saintly"/perfect/"wunnerful wunnerful, in every way". (such an attitude is called: WILFUL BLINDNESS and/or INTENTIONAL IGNORANCE.)
free dixie,sw
Sure did.
So some random northern people, including a general, made comments that can be interpreted in the way you do. I'll take your word for it that such documents exist and even that the writers had such intentions.
So what?
Your statement is that "northerners" intended to keep their own slaves while freeing those of southerners. Presumably you didn't mean two or three random northerners, you meant a majority, or at least a large enough group that they would have some chance of putting their plans into action.
Their plans didn't work out very well, did they?
My comments have been based on what northerners DID, not random extractions from casual letters.
Union states had freed all slaves, with the exception of about 20,000, before the war had even ended. The remaining slaves were in what all before the war had considered a southern, not a northern, state.
Then northerners passed constitutional amendments freeing all slaves immediately, without compensation, even slaves of men who had fought for the Union.
BTW, there's a historical injustice there that gets very little attention.
They then forced southern states to ratify the amendments.
BTW, there was discussion in the early part of the war of freeing the slaves of "traitors," while allowing loyalists to retain theirs. But this was more of a proposed revenge tactic than an anti-slavery move, and it never really got any traction. In time of war, as in all other periods, some people say stupid things. Taking such talk and claiming it as the fixed intention of a large group is inappropriate.