Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-09-22
MY Paramount Object: Save the Union
By Edword Boykin

By Edword Boykin
Ninety years ago today President Abra-
ham Lincoln announced to the world his
intention to free the three million Negro
slaves in the warning Southern States of
the Union. The action came as dra-
matte climax to q steady stream Of in
vecttve heaped on President Lincoln for
his conduct Of the war. The New York
Tribune's Horace Greeley took the lead
in the Attacks.
It was on September a., 1862, that
Lincoln found the favorable turn of
events he had been waiting for. Gen.
Lees Southern army had been stopped
in its tracks at Antietam. Freeing the
slaves could no longer be misinterpreted
as the last desperate act Of dying
republic.
Only month before Lincoln made
his historic announcement. gloom hung
over Washington like black blanket.
The war was going from bad to worse.
The Union generals were piling up costly
plumbers. Lees titantic blows had thrown
McCleuan's magnificent army back from
the threshold Of Richmond in disaster
that dropped confidence in the Govern
ment to a new low. Already the opening
shots OF fresh defeat at Second Bull
Run were echoing across the Manassas
plains.
Harassed, fioundering, the administra-
ton had apparently lost the know how.
Saving the Union looked like hopeless
dream. Even Lincoln, on whom fell the
brunt OF the blame, feared the worst.
Said he, Il felt that we had reached the
end OF our rope. that we had about
played our last card and must change
our tactics or lose the game"
On Capitol Hill Lincoln's enemies
called him failure. Press and pulpit,
politician and man in the street, took
up the hue and cry. Lincoln was too
slow IN making war on the South-too
hesitant. howled the disappointed abo-
itionists. in attacking slavery. Lincoln's
zgzag policy. his inaction his vacillation
were getting nowhere fast.
Letters poured into Washington ure-
ing the President to do something. any,
thing. His failure to wage an about
war on slavery itself. to annihilate the
hated institution at one fell swoop,
stirred the anti-slavery bitter-enders to
1ury. With torrent Of hostile criticism
swirling around the White House, the
man who was too slow" bided his time.
refusing TO be pushed.
Lincoln had quietly set his sights on
a fixed goal-saving the Union at all
costs. Let the abolitionists shout as
they pleased. What if crusader Wendell
Phillips did say, CAS- long as you keep
the present turtle at the head of the
Government you make pit with one
hand and I'LL it up with the other"
Few outside Lincoln's cabinet knew
what he was thinking or planning. TAX
ing his own counsel he had resolved to
emancipate the slaves in the Confeder-
ate States as war measure. military
necessity. not as a political maneuver.
He drafted q proclamation Of emanci-
patton which he read to his cabinet
one midsummer day in 1862, when
shadows hung deep over the Union
cause. His cabinet listened intently.
but only the Secretary Of State had any
thing to offer. Seward said he approved
the proclamation. but strongly advised
delay. Such q proclamation. he said,
would come too soon after the tragic
defeats around Richmond and would
look like the dying gesture Of an ex-
hausted Government.
The wisdom OF Stewards advice struck
Lincoln with great force. He folded up
the paper and put it in pigeonhole to
await favorable turn Of events. All
sathis. of course. .happened behind the
Leader Of the pack that then snapped
at Lincoln's heels was the most powerful
editor in the United States. Horace
Greeley Of the New York Tribune. He
and Lincoln had not always seen eye
to eye. High on his editorial perch,
Greeley somehow felt he knew better
how to run the war than Lincoln.
Greeley It was, who after the opening
defeat at Bull Run. had urged Lincoln
to seek an armistice and make deal
with the Confederate States.
Early in August. 1862, friend brought
Lincoln word that Greeley was readying
an editorial appeal to the Nation that
would needle Lincoln into action on
slavery. Lincoln waited like q man
sitting on time bomb.
On August 10, 1862. Greeley's bomb
exploded Splashed across the Tribune's
front page was a big headline, THE
PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS"
Under it was an open letter to President
Lincoln in which Greeley charged the
Chief Executive with dereliction Of his
duty and castigated him for his delay
in dealing with slavery. It was done up
in Greeley's best. It said, in part:
Dear Sir: I do not intrude to tell
you-for you must know already-that
a great proportion Of those who tri-
umphed in your election. and Of all who
desire the unqualified suppression Of the
Rebellion now desolating the country,
are sorely disappointed and deeply
panied by the policy you seem to be pur-
suing with regard to the slaves of the
Rebels. write only to set succinctly
and Enthusiastically before you what we
require, what we think we have right
to expect and of what we complain. ;.
1--WE think you are strangely and dis
astrously remiss in the discharge Of your
official and imperative duty. i. We
think timid counsels in such crisis are
calculated to prove perilous and probably
disastrous. -. We complain that the
Union cause has suffered. and is now
suffering immensely. from mistaken def
erence to Rebel slavery. -.
"As one Of the millions who would