Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune.
Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York and was the unsuccessful candidate of the new Liberal Republican.
Horace Greeley complained that Lincoln had not proclaimed emancipation as he was required to do by the Second Confiscation Act, and asserted that all attempts to put down the rebellion while at the same time upholding slavery were “preposterous and futile.”
Lincoln makes it clear to the public that though he considers his primary constitutional duty to be to save the Union, partial or even total emancipation might well be the necessary means to attain that end.
From Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley
[Newspaper Clipping], August 22, 1862
(snip)
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution.
The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.”
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
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