“When Lincoln took office, in March 1861, the national government had no power to touch slavery in the states where it existed. Lincoln understood this, and said as much in his first inaugural address, noting: ‘I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.’” How, then, asks Paul Finkelman in the introduction to Lincoln, Congress, and Emancipation, did Lincoln—who personally hated slavery—lead the nation through the Civil War to January 1865, when Congress passed the constitutional amendment that ended slavery outright? The essays in this book examine the route Lincoln took to achieve emancipation and how it is remembered both in the United States and abroad. The ten contributors—all on the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship on Lincoln and the Civil War—push our understanding of this watershed moment in US history in new directions. They present wide-ranging contributions to Lincoln studies, including a parsing of the sixteenth president’s career in Congress in the 1840s and a brilliant critique of the historical choices made by Steven Spielberg and writer Tony Kushner in the movie Lincoln, about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. As a whole, these classroom-ready readings provide fresh and essential perspectives on Lincoln’s deft navigation of constitutional and political circumstances to move emancipation forward. Contributors: L. Diane Barnes, Jenny Bourne, Michael Burlingame, Orville Vernon Burton, Seymour Drescher, Paul Finkelman, Amy S. Greenberg, James Oakes, Beverly Wilson Palmer, Matthew Pinsker

Prizewinning Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo presents, for the first time, a full scale study of Lincoln's greatest state paper.

A sweeping history of the Lower Mississippi Valley and its central role in abolishing slavery in the American South.

No one has fully examined Lincoln's impact on Civil War diplomacy, particularly as it derived from his constantly evolving views toward slavery and the way these ideas fitted into his concept of the Union. In 1945 Jay Monaghan published his classic work, A Diplomat in Carpet Slippers: Abraham Lincoln Deals with Foreign Affairs, but it rested almost entirely on American sources and reflected both a Union and a Lincoln bias. Moreover, Monaghan brought insufficient focus to Lincoln's efforts to tie antislavery to the creation of a better Union. This gap in the historiography of the period proviedes the rationale for this book. - Prologue.

How did the Thirteenth Amendment come about? Learn about Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the abolitionist movement in this book complete with timeline, primary sources, photographs, and excerpts from the time period.

Civil rights legislation figured prominently in the agenda of Congress during the Civil War and Reconstruction. But as Reconstruction came to an end and discrimination against African Americans in the South became commonplace, civil rights advocates in Congress increasingly shifted to policies desired by white constituents in the North who had grown tired of efforts to legislate equality. In this book, the first of a two-volume set, Jeffery A. Jenkins and Justin Peck explore the rise and fall of civil rights legislation in Congress from 1861 to 1918. The authors examine in detail how the Republican Party slowly withdrew its support for a meaningful civil rights agenda, as well as how Democrats and Republicans worked together to keep civil rights off the legislative agenda at various points. In doing so, Jenkins and Peck show how legal institutions can be used both to liberate and protect oppressed minorities and to assert the power of the white majority against those same minority groups.

In modern times, some critics have belittled Abraham Lincoln's antislavery resolve as shallow. Some have portrayed him as a passive president, waiting upon the bold initiatives of others. 'Citizen Lincoln' regards him differently. First, it portrays Lincoln's animus against slavery as rooted in the highest ideals of the American Revolution, which he saw as being corrupted in his own time. Second, it analyses Lincoln's supposed 'passivity' as more aptly defined as wise caution. Lincoln learned as a legislator, first in Illinois and later in the United States Congress, that bold initiatives often backfire and fail to fulfil original intentions. In the state legislature, Lincoln supported a dramatic internal-improvements project that collapsed in the midst of a national depression. Lincoln also boldly opposed the Mexican War in Congress, only to see his cause evaporate as soon as a peace treaty was drafted with Mexico. In both instances, his timing was faulty. He had rushed into taking rigid policy positions when greater caution would have reaped better results. But in both instances, he learned lessons that would hold him in good stead later. Lincoln as president was wisely cautious, knowing that bold action could only disrupt the delicate coalition that kept the Union cause moving forward to victory. Harriet Beecher Stowe described Lincoln's unique strength as "swaying to every influence, yielding on this side and on that to popular needs, yet tenaciously and inflexibly bound to carry its great end". She wisely added that no other kind of strength could have seen the nation through the worst trial in its history. In filling this role, Abraham Lincoln fulfilled that which he had long regarded as his personal mission within the larger context of his nation's providential destiny.

This study introduces a new perspective on Lincoln and the Civil War through an examination of his declaration of our national values and the subsequent interpretation of those values by families during the war. This volume is a completely new approach to Civil War history. Historians rightly regard Abraham Lincoln as a moral exemplar, a president who gave new life to the national values that defined America. While some previous studies attest to Lincoln's identification with family virtues, this is the first to link Lincoln's personal biography with actual histories of families at war. It analyzes the relationship that existed between Lincoln and these families and assesses the moral struggles that validated the families' decision for or against the conflict. Written to be accessible to students and the general reader alike, the book examines Lincoln's presidency as measured against the stories of families, North and South, that struggled with his definition of Union virtues. It looks at Lincoln's compelling case for democratic values—among them, justice, patriotism, honor, and commitment—first stated in his 1861 speech before Independence Hall. The work also uses case studies to demonstrate how virtue, as practiced in families, illuminated, contested, adapted, and even transformed his concept, giving new meaning to the "virtues of war."

In Lincoln Illuminated and Remembered, venerated Lincoln scholar William C. Harris revisits neglected features of the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln that deserve further attention. In this collection of essays written with his characteristically inviting prose, Harris draws on decades of scholarship on America’s most highly regarded president to provide a fresh and fuller treatment of aspects of Lincoln’s political career and legacy that have not been adequately analyzed by historians or biographers. Lincoln Illuminated and Remembered offers new perspectives on Lincoln’s leadership, with particular concern for the origins and development of Lincoln’s qualities as a leader. Harris offers up the events of the Mexican-American War, an early and often neglected feature of Lincoln’s political career, as a crucible for his political identity and vision. Another essay provides a detailed account of Lincoln’s support for compensated emancipation, highlighted by his plan to end the Civil War and slavery. Lincoln’s military leadership is also described and analyzed, along with his relationship with George B. McClellan, Ulysses S. Grant, and other Civil War commanders. Harris deftly describes Lincoln’s respect for the law and the Constitution and its effects on his policies regarding southern secession, political opposition in the North, and guerrilla warfare in the West and along the Canadian border. Finally, a biographical account of James Rood Doolittle, Lincoln’s leading supporter in the Senate, is offered within the context of President Lincoln’s relationship with Congress, the rise of the Republican Party, and the turbulent events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. As Harris argues throughout these essays, Lincoln’s development as commander in chief of the armies and his skills in dealing with Congress proved essential in winning the war, ending slavery, and elevating Lincoln to the rank of America’s greatest president—an honor that was unthinkable at his first inauguration.

Revised perspective on sharecropping