Lincoln as Abolitionist (14)

And despite his efforts to conciliate the South after his election, when the decision came down to surrendering Fort Sumter or letting the Confederates initiate the war, he held firm and let the secessionists proceed in the war that ultimately meant destruction for their "peculiar institution".

And he did issue the Emancipation Proclamation that despite its limitations at the moment was the death-knell for slavery. He brought black soldiers into the Union army, which was a tremendous boost to the image of blacks in the eyes of Northern whites. And he brought the Civil War to a successful conclusion, with the United States victorious and the Slave Power defeated.

And the war changed Lincoln's attitudes just as it did that of many Americans. It certainly shattered any illusions he may have maintained about colonizing black Americans to Africa. And there is much to suggest that he also came to have a more realistic - and more democratic - view of the capabilities of people of African descent.

Lincoln met the African-American abolitionist leader and former slave Frederick Douglass in person at the White House in 1863. He said of the President in his autobiography (pp. 350-5), "I at once felt myself in the presence of an honest man - one whom I could love, honor and trust without reserve or doubt." And while Lincoln did not grant all of Douglass' requests on war policy, he took a generous view of the President's positions: "In all this I saw the tender heart of the man rather than the stern warrior and commander-in-chief of the American army and navy, and, while I could not agree with him, I could but respect his humane spirit."

At the time of his interview with Lincoln, Douglass had three sons serving in the Union Army.