When Abraham Lincoln first took office, he was under enormous pressure from the Radical Republicans to simply free all the slaves and immediately grant them citizenship, including voting rights. During a meeting at the White House, the firebrand senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner, the leader of the Radical Republicans, called the new president weak and cowardly, and berated him, telling Lincoln he was afraid to do what was right and just.
Lincoln’s ultimate goal was to free the slaves, but as the southern states were seceding and threatening a civil war, the new president desperately needed to protect his flank and keep the border states of Kentucky and Maryland in the Union. If he freed the slaves and ...
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