Does this sound like a man who is displaying the courage of his convictions , or is this a real first rate, second rate man?
There was no pretense involved. No one ever said that the north was fighting for slavery then and no one says it now. This -cannot- be a correct statement by Adams. The vast majority of northerers did not give a fig for the blacks, and wanted free blacks among them only a little more than southern whites did.
Look: President Lincoln opposed the timing of Congress' outlawing of slavery in the District of Columbia in 1862; he rescinded Fremont's and Hunter's and Butler's emancipation proclamations in 1862 for the same reason -- it inflamed people in the north who wanted it made clear that they were fighting for Union and not emancipation.
Adams' statement cannot be true.
What -is- true is that after several failed attempts at compensated emanciation in 1862, Lincoln resolved on military emancipation -- not as he said, for personal reasons, but on military grounds in order to help suppress the rebellion.
Walt
When you quote this particular passage from Adams, it shows that -you- are unfamiliar with one of the major themes of the war too. The northerners fought to preserve the Union, not to free the slaves. They --accepted-- the freeing of the slaves because it weakened the power of the rebellion.
Adams suggested something that anyone even generally familiar with the record knows is false, and you went for it hook, line and sinker.
Walt