“This is the man foresighted and shrewd enough to tackle the thorny issue of slavery not head-on, but obliquely, understanding from the outset the existential threat it posed to the Union. His legacy, burnished by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, arose from a fundamental comprehension that it was “a great moral wrong.”
Perhaps the author is unaware of the famous letter that Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune. On Aug. 22, 1862, he wrote, “My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.”
When will the hagiography stop?
He put saving the Union ahead of immediate emancipation.
What's the difficulty?
When will the hagiography stop?
***********
Never. It is necessary to legitimize the status quo imbalance of power.
Would you care to explain how these two objectives are in conflict?
Islam across a good chunk of the world today, and the Chinese and North Korean governments, are committing ongoing great moral wrongs. Not to mention great moral wrongs elsewhere in the world.
If I recognize and point out these wrongs, am I therefore morally obligated to also wage immediate total war against them all?
When will the out-of-context-quoting stop? For the record, here's the full quote from Lincoln:
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.And you know the funny thing? Somehow, at the end of the war, the slaves ended up free.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. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.
I've wondered several times if Lincoln wasn't just lying to Greeley tactically ..... oh, excuse me, make that "indulging in political rhetoric to garner support for an important political aim necessary to the successful conclusion of the war and the preservation of the Union."
(Which was NOT dissolved or "destroyed" by secession, as witness the manifest ability of the non-seceding States to conquer, degrade, and shackle the departing States into an .... ahem .... new arrangement.)
Like that, maybe.