With Malice Toward None

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition    

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On July 13, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln consulted secretaries William H. Seward and Gideon Welles on the particulars of the Emancipation Proclamation. Both men were speechless. Seward anticipated anarchy in the South and perhaps foreign intervention in the war. Seeing that Welles was even more confused, Lincoln let the matter rest, but on July 22 he presented this draft proclamation to the full cabinet, to mixed reactions. Cabinet secretaries Stanton and Bates advocated the document’s immediate release. Chase was cool to the idea, fearing it would result in widespread disorder. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair was in opposition and believed that it would lead to Republican defeat in the coming fall congressional elections. Seward and Caleb Smith also opposed the measure. Lincoln again dropped the issue; however, it was clear to his advisors that he was set on issuing an emancipation proclamation by year’s end.

(Transcription)

I, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do order and declare that on the first day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and sixtythree ...


On July 13, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln consulted secretaries William H. Seward and Gideon Welles on the particulars of the Emancipation Proclamation. Both men were speechless. Seward anticipated anarchy in the South and perhaps foreign intervention in the war. Seeing that Welles was even more confused, Lincoln let the matter rest, but on July 22 he presented this draft proclamation to the full cabinet, to mixed reactions. Cabinet secretaries Stanton and Bates advocated the document’s immediate release. Chase was cool to the idea, fearing it would result in widespread disorder. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair was in opposition and believed that it would lead to Republican defeat in the coming fall congressional elections. Seward and Caleb Smith also opposed the measure. Lincoln again dropped the issue; however, it was clear to his advisors that he was set on issuing an emancipation proclamation by year’s end.