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Further to my last, perhaps the "champion of emancipation" was the real text of Lincoln's 1856 "missing speech" to the Republican convention, and the real reason for the Republicans' otherwise quizzical nomination of Gen. John Fremont, a career military man of no known political connections otherwise, for President.

Fremont's failed candidacy in 1856 may have convinced Lincoln and his closest friends that thereafter Lincoln would have to do it himself.

If this is what actually happened, then a whole correspondence about the Republican campaign of 1856 remains to be discovered, examined or reexamined, and integrated.

The implication here is that, from the beginning, the Republican Party was a political crusade undertaken on a platform that included a secret war plank.

To all: I much appreciate your comments and history lessons.

from lentulusgracchus: "The implication here is that, from the beginning, the Republican Party was a political crusade undertaken on a platform that included a secret war plank."

From its founding, the Republican Party was the party of anti-slavery. After all, Republicans had replaced the old Whig party, which they considered too wishy-washy and compromising. Even back then, true Republicans didn't like "moderates"!

Also, much has been made about Lincoln's supposedly "unconstitutional" actions, but you need to re-read the Constitution -- especially Article 1, Sections 8 & 9 and Article 4 Section 4. These provide for extreme actions to be taken in cases of invasion, insurrection, rebellion and domestic violence. So our Founders never intended to let everyone just "do their own thing."

Finally, I'm looking for a source, which I think is McCullough's book on John Adams, but don't have it handy here to confirm. You may remember that John Adams was George Washington's strong supporter, got Washington appointed Commander in Chief of the Army in 1775, later became Washington's Vice President, and then President Adams -- we could call him Adams 2.

Well, Adams 2's son, John Quincy Adams, became President Adams #6, then later served in the House of Representatives, where he knew Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Thus JQ Adams 6 was the only President who knew both Washington and Lincoln.

Adams 6, like his father Adams 2, was strongly anti-slavery. And I think it was Adams 6 who first formed the Constitutional opinion that the only legal way (short of an impossible Constitutional Amendment) to completely abolish slavery was a War of Rebellion, during which the Federal Government's authority could be exerted over the rebellious territories.

Thus we can say, the IDEA which eventually became the Civil War was first formed by the son of our anti-slavery Founding Father, John Adams, at the time when he and Lincoln both served in Congress. I think that's McCullough's argument...

The implication here is that, from the beginning, the Republican Party was a political crusade undertaken on a platform that included a secret war plank.

LG, you nailed it. The big government socialists, aka Whigs then Republicans, had to divest the federal congress of the true conservatives, aka Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans. True, given another 20-30 years with an ever increasing majority the northeast would have political controul of the Union, but Lincoln and his ilk were too impatient to wait, and too eager to despoil and plunder the country.

In that regard, Obama is most definitely following in Lincoln's political and socialist footsteps.