TY - BOOK AU - Crofts,Daniel W. TI - Lincoln and the politics of slavery: the other Thirteenth Amendment and the struggle to save the union T2 - Civil War America SN - 9781469627335 AV - E457 .L563 2016 PY - 2016/// CY - Chapel Hill PB - The University of North Carolina Press KW - Lincoln, Abraham, KW - United States -- KW - Constitution KW - 13th Amendment KW - History KW - Enslaved persons KW - Emancipation KW - United States KW - 19th century KW - Slavery KW - Law and legislation KW - Electronic Books N1 - 2; Prologue : the bread pill --; The antebellum context. The abolition movement and the problem of the Constitution ; Antislavery politics and the problem of the constitution ; The Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln, and the problem of the Constitution --; Origins of the other Thirteenth Amendment. Mutual misconceptions ; The Seward amendment ; The Corwin amendment --; Debating the other Thirteenth Amendment. Reaching across the abyss ; The unfazed and the alarmed ; The amendment assessed --; The abortive launch. Congress acts ; The president speaks ; The ratification fizzle --; Epilogue 1. James M. Ashley and the Thirteenth Amendment --; Epilogue 2. John A. Bingham and the Fourteenth Amendment; 2; b N2 - In this landmark book, Daniel Crofts examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln's life: his role as the "Great Emancipator." Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it to be legal where it already existed, and he never imagined fighting a war to end it. In 1861, as part of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and prevent war, the new president even offered to accept a constitutional amendment that barred Congress from interfering with slavery in the slave states. Lincoln made this key overture in his first inaugural address. Crofts unearths the hidden history and political maneuvering behind the stillborn attempt to enact this amendment, the polar opposite of the actual Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 that ended slavery. This compelling book sheds light on an overlooked element of Lincoln's statecraft and presents a relentlessly honest portrayal of America's most admired president. Crofts rejects the view advanced by some Lincoln scholars that the wartime momentum toward emancipation originated well before the first shots were fired. Lincoln did indeed become the "Great Emancipator," but he had no such intention when he first took office. Only amid the crucible of combat did the war to save the Union become a war for freedom UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1074905&site=eds-live&custid=s3260518 ER -