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Old 01-08-13, 03:22 PM   #19
Bilge_Rat
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Join Date: Apr 2002
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen View Post
Oh, absolutely. Lincoln's views on slavery may have been that emancipation was the way to go, but the move to actually emancipate was purely political and calculated for effect. The man was a master politician.
If he was only interested in getting re-elected, he would not have pushed through the EP. No one in the North wanted to die just to free slaves.

He was a very smart politician in that he knew he could only issue the EP after a victory so it would not look like a desparate move. He had the EP in his pocket for months, but only went ahead after Antietam.
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