[Illbay]

True, but it set the stage for acceptance of general Emancipation.

Lincoln was not sure that he would politically survive the issuing of the proclamation. He almost didn't, except that the U.S. war successes were more important.

At the end of the war, he made a speech were he proclaimed that general emancipation and the Negro franchise were on the horizon.

After reading that speech, John Wilkes Boothe proclaimed that Lincoln was a dead man.

Abraham Lincoln died because ultra-racist Southerners like Boothe could not bear this heresy.

[=Intervention=]

You got your facts wrong again, Illbay. Booth shouted out "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" as he fired -- for the Latin-impaired, "Thus always to tyrants." I don't agree with murder, but Lincoln's suspending the Constitution, putting the nation under martial law, shutting down presses with which he disagreed, among other things, lead me to appreciate Booth's sentiments.