Abraham Lincoln's Speech Analysis

When Abraham Lincoln first gave one of the most famous speeches in all of American history, he made the first national step that would forever change the lives of Black Americans. More than a century later in todays’ time, we still remember the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all Blacks from the bonds of slavery. The misconception and error that many people are misguided to believe in present day is that the sole reason the Civil War was fought was due to slavery- more specifically, the Emancipation. Although a leading factor, after reading WHAT THEY FOUGHT FOR by James M. McPherson we come across the underlying fact that most Union soldiers who enlisted had not even the faintest thought of freeing black slaves until the middle and/or near end of the war. The Civil War from …show more content…
As Pro Abolitionist welcomed the Proclamation, soldiers who only enlisted to preserve the nation and fight for liberty felt betrayed- wishing nothing to do with war any longer. (page 60-61 anti-emancipation). I revisit this topic to not belittle slavery; for it was a prime cause of the Civil War, but to show that at first most soldiers’ slavery was not on their mind- but liberty and being the “Beacon of Light”. Later in the war, though more soldiers convert to being Abolitionist for seeing the treatment of slaves first hand- they wanted to end the war as quickly as possible. Thus, leading us today and this Essay. I hope I was able to explain a tad bit on the Union soldiers and their ideal to fight for liberty, self-government, democracy, the future of their home and country regardless of the darker desires of man in the face of war and bloodshed. Also, to be clear, that the intention was no way of saying slavery was not a main issue, but to illuminate that most union soldiers did not solely fight for that cause till