Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery

321 Pages·2006·2.61 MB·English

by  Richard Striner

LINCOLN AND THE BEST CASE FUTURE (cid:1)
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ALSO BY RICHARD STRINER
Washington Past and Present: A Guide to Our Nation’s Capital
(with Donald R. Kennon)
Art Deco
The Civic Deal: Re-Empowering Our Great Republic
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L ’ R S
INCOLN S ELENTLESS TRUGGLE TO
E S
ND LAVERY
R S
ICHARD TRINER
2006
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Copyright © 2006 by Richard Striner
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Striner, Richard, 1950–
Father Abraham : Lincoln’s relentless struggle to end slavery / Richard Striner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-518306-1
ISBN-10: 0-19-518306-1
1. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865—Views on slavery.
2. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865—Relations with African Americans.
3. Slaves—Emancipation—United States. I. Title.
E457.2.S89 2006
973.7’092—dc22
2005023083
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my wife, Sara Jane, and all my family
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Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
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Lincoln and Slavery: The Problem 5
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Lincoln and Free Soil, 1854–1858 35
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Lincoln and Slavery: Containment, 1859–1861 89
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Lincoln and Emancipation, 1861–1862 137
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Lincoln and the War to the Death, 1863 189
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Lincoln and the Worst-Case Future, 1864 217
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Lincoln and the Best-Case Future, 1864–1865 241
Notes 265
Select Bibliography 293
Index 297
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WISH TO THANK the following people for their contributions to the
book. I am deeply grateful to James M. McPherson, Eric Foner,
David Grimsted, Harold Holzer, Michael Burlingame, Herman
Belz, Robert Cleary, and my wife, Sara Striner, for their willing-
ness to review the manuscript in whole or in part. I am especially in-
debted to my literary agent, John W. Wright, for his many helpful
suggestions. At Oxford University Press, I will always be grateful to
my editor, Peter Ginna, his assistant, Laura Stickney, and senior pro-
duction editor Joellyn Ausanka for their many outstanding contribu-
tions to this book. I will always remember the encouragement provided
by my family (especially my parents) and my friends Richard Berryman,
Avis Black, Joan Nicolaysen, Jann Hoag, Laura Lieberman, Henry
McKinney, and Carl Reddel. I will always be grateful to my graduate
student Kevin Fields for his research assistance. Any errors in the book
are my own.