August 21, 2024 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the 28th Episode of our Story of America Series with Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, Bill tells the story of the frantic first few months of America's bloodiest conflict—the Civil War—and how Abraham Lincoln, a man with no executive experience, fought to preserve the Union he so desperately loved.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next another
installment of our series about Us, the Story of America series,
with Hillsdale College professor and author of Land of Hope
Bill McLain. The Civil War was a culmination of many things,
most of all slavery in the election of Abraham Lincoln.
(00:31):
Let's get into the story. Take it away, Bill, So.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's how the Civil War begans. It was a long road,
a century of the making, and why that, in retrospect,
almost had to happen in some form or another. Few
at the time believed it would take as long as
it took to end, or that the casualties would pile
(00:58):
up as high as they did. But for Lincoln there
was one goal, and one goal alone, the preservation of
the Union. It's important to keep in mind it was
not until well into the nation's bloodiest war at the
ending of slavery itself would become an explicit Northern objective.
(01:19):
And you could see that from the elaborate emphatic professions
of Lincoln in the first Inaugular Address that he had
no intention, no inclination, As he said, he changed the
status of slavery as it had existed as the war began,
the North had big advantages, no doubt. North had more
(01:41):
people twenty two million compared to the South's nine million,
four million of which were slaves. The North had economic
power that dwarfed the South, from banking to manufacturing, to
shipping and other commerce, and they produced most of the
iron and coal in the country. There was a huge
advantage of the North wind when it came to transportation,
(02:01):
to railroads, ships, even horses, and actual navy, and a
pretty good sized one at that. So the odds at
first glance were clearly stacked against the South. But there's
more to war than material and industrial strength. The advantages
(02:22):
the South enjoyed were significant, and they were intrinsic advantages
rather than extras. For one thing, victory for the South
had a much easier path to win. The South merely
had to hang on to their territory. They had to
hang on to their own land, their own homes. They
had only to hold on to what was already theirs.
(02:46):
The dwarfs had to fight and win control over huge
amounts of hostile territory seven hundred and fifty thousand square
miles of territory that's nearly the size of Mexico and
after when the North would then have the unenviable task
(03:06):
of trying to get this out to rejoin the Union,
forcing it back into the Union that it had rejected.
Most important of all, the North was fighting for an idea,
the idea of the Union. The South was fighting to
defend their homes. But there were more reasons for Southerners
to feel optimistic for a triumph in this battle. One
(03:29):
thing the South had on its side was time. If
the South could simply prolong the war and its casualties
long enough for northerns to get tired of the cost
of war and human life and financial costs too, they
would just quit the war and let the South go
and continue to trade with their new Southern partner. There
(03:50):
was a saying in Afghanistan and some of their leaders
that fleshes this line of thinking. Now, asked about America's
superior fighting vower and military technology, an Afghan general li lented,
they have the watches, we have the time. It was
true of the twenty first century, and it was a
(04:11):
very large advantage to South enjoyed over the North. The
South also had the hope that one of its great
European trading partners completely dependent on cotton might eventually join
the south side, so, for example, Great Britain. The South
also had remarkably talented military leaders, arguably the best in
(04:32):
the nation, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and others who
left the Union Army to join the Confederacy's cause. And
the South was filled with young and older men alike
who were used to shooting. They looking used to shooting
squirrels at long distances for food and the fun. They
were great marksmen, and great marksmen make for a fierce
(04:57):
and effective army of resistance. And that's not all. Lincoln
was up against it at home. He was a new president.
His victory was not a big one. It was crushing
in the northern states. But remember he did not get
(05:18):
a single electoral vote from the southern state, so his
support was not long wide or deep. And he didn't
have a true national army. There'd always been this prohibition
against the notion of outstanding army, going back to the founding.
So Lincoln would have to create a national army, and
(05:39):
he'd have to do it very quickly, and it wasn't pretty.
He called up the state militias. It would show up
at mustering points, dressed up in their home uniforms, which
ranged in colors from red to black to emeralds. When
New York Regiment even came dressed in Turkish garb with
(06:00):
fez hats. The army, in short, was visibly a mess.
To turn this assembly of men into a functioning army
would take time, skill, and real patience. And you may
remember that this was the great task in the Revolutionary
War of George Washington, how to create a continental army
(06:23):
that would hold together, that would be effective in battle,
that would be disciplined, they wouldn't desert at the first opportunity.
Lincoln face this challenge as well, and Lincoln knew that
he'd have to get some early wins in this new war,
because if he had a string of early losses, people
(06:43):
would lose confidence in the Union's ability to achieve its objectives.
And there was a sentiment of feeling that this war
wasn't going to last very long. It was very deeply
ingrained in the North because of the superiority advantages that
were baked into the cake. Lincoln when he signed up
(07:05):
his first volunteers, it was for a ninety day enlistment,
hoping that some decisive wins, especially a strike on the
Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia, which was only ninety miles
from Washington. But that would end things? How hard could
that be? Well? That question was answered quickly, abruptly, rudely,
(07:31):
and rather decisively by the first major land battle at
bull Run, not far from the nation's capital. The force
of thirty seven thousand Union soldiers was humiliated by a
Southern force led by General Jackson Stonewall Jackson. The Northern
troops were outflanked, out maneuvered, outclassed entirely. They came racing
(07:53):
the home along with some onlookers and picnickers, observers who
thought it might be fun to watch a real life
battle in action. They would be disabused of such a
silly and trivial notion very quickly, as the North was
also disabused of the idea of this war would be
easy and quick. At the same time, the General in
(08:21):
chief Winfield Scott, a hero of the War of eighteen
twelve in the Mexican War, but a man who was
seventy four years old and not in particularly good hell.
Winfield Scott put together a grand plan of action known
as the Anaconda plant, named after the huge South American
snake that squeezes its prey to death. That was the
(08:42):
Union's plan. Used its superior navy to blockade the Southern ports,
which would have the twofold negative effect. I'm not letting
much needed imports into the region, and the economy of
the South depended on imports, and it depended on exports.
The anaconda squeezed the economic engine out of the South,
cotton by not letting the South's biggest export out of
(09:05):
the country. It was a great strategy on paper, but
there was only one problem. It took too long.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And you've been listening to Hillsdale College Professor Bill McLay
tell one heck of a story about the Civil War.
It start a century in the making, but as Professor
McLay said, almost inevitable civil war still happening all over
the world. But this one, our civil War, one of
the most catastrophic of all time. We continue the story
(09:38):
with Bill McLay, the story of America's Civil War here
on our American Stories. And we returned to our American
(10:11):
Stories and with the latest installment of our Story of
America series with Professor Bill McLay, author of Land of Hope.
When we left off, Lincoln had developed a plan with
General Winfield Scott to embargo and end the ongoing rebellion
in the South with his Anaconda Plan. Let's return to
the story.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Winfield Scott put together a grand plan of action known
as the Anaconda Plant. It was a great strategy on paper,
but there was only one problem. It took too long.
Embargoes take time, Blockades take time, and time was not
on Lincoln's side, so he replaced the aging Scott with
(10:58):
the first of his many generals, with General George McClellan,
whose task was to advance the war and take the
battle to the South with speed and decisive victories. McClellan
soon disappointed Lincoln too. He was a stiff and snobby man,
a west Pointer who believed in thorough preparation and training
(11:21):
of his troops, and as a result, delayed any move
on Virginia until March of eighteen sixty two, what must
have felt like an eternity for Lincoln. It didn't help
matters that the arrogant McClellan had opened contempt for Lincoln's
intellect and talents. Eventually, McClellan was ready to take on
the objective of seizing Richmond and came up with a
(11:42):
very good plan to do it. Instead of a direct
southern march through the tough terrade of northern Virginia, McClellan
would move his army one hundred and twenty thousand down
the Potomac River to the Chesapeake Bay, south to the
peace of land between the James and York Rivers where
Jamestown and Yorktown were, and then proceeded from the southeast
(12:08):
up to Richmond. McClellan's opening salvo went well. His army
was within twenty five miles of Richmond, but that early
success was squandered due to McLellan's endless fussing and hesitancy,
which all but lost any military momentum. Into that vacuum
came General Lee of the Confederacy, who, through a series
(12:29):
of brilliant tactical moves, beat back McClellan's advances, all of
which ended in a union retreat. War is tricky, and
soon Lee would suffer from precisely the opposite problem of
McClellan's void. By confidence, maybe too much confidence, Lee decided
to attack the north in Pennsylvania and Maryland, a bold
(12:53):
thing to do, as the South's advantage was fighting a
defensive war, and yet this was going on off in
a big way, hoping that it would show potential European
supporters reasons why they ought to join the South, cause
the South was strong enough to prevail. Well, it turned
(13:14):
out to be a bigger gamba with far more risk
than the League could have imagined. It turns out General
McClellan's intelligence unit secured these battle plans secret orders that
gave the Union troops a huge advantage. It was a
(13:36):
big advantage, but once again McClellan failed to act decisively,
giving Lee time to gather his forces. The two armies
would meet at Antietam Creek in Maryland on September seventeenth,
eighteen sixty two. Nearly twenty two thousand men were killed
or wounded that day, making it a single bloodiest day
(13:58):
of a very bloody war. There were no winners or
losers in this battle. Essentially, it was a tie, a wash.
Lincoln was not pleased with mccleouin's performance. Mcclollan was removed
and replaced with a more decisive and aggressive general, General
(14:19):
Ambrose burned the side. As tough as Antietam was for
the North, and it was tough, it may have been
tougher on the South. Their ability to track support from
nations around the world had been hindered. Lincoln saw an opportunity.
He'd always been bondering waves to weaken the institution of slavery.
(14:39):
Though never a self described abolitionist, he's always known what
slavery was and spoke often about what it was an
unqualified evil. Now he was getting pressure from abolitionist groups
and Republicans to do something. Lincoln understood that a move
in this direction would be appealing to world powers and
(15:00):
gain their support, while simultaneously ending any real chance of
outside support by foreign powers of the Confederacy's cause. It
was a two for one deal in the end. So
what held Lincoln back from moving earlier on this site. Well,
(15:21):
it turns out slavery was protected by the Constitution itself.
Lincoln had said this many times. He even addressed it
in his campaign At his inaugural address. It was not
a mere trifle. Lincoln had a near religious view of
the Constitution. It was the north Star, along with the
Declaration of Independence by which he was guided Lincoln understood
(15:44):
the very strength and future of the Union depended on
devotion to the Constitution. He knew that if he were
to use his executive power to end slavery, he would
have to do it in a way that was also
in accord with and compliant with the Constitution. And Lincoln
had other issues to grapple with, very practical ones, tactical
(16:06):
political problems. For one thing, he wanted to keep the
border states like Missouri and Kentucky, slave states that had
not joined the Confederacy. He wanted to keep them out
of the Confederacy, and knew that any bold or sudden
moved to end slavery might well have the effect of
pushing those border states into the arms of the Confederacy,
(16:29):
which would be a disaster for the Union's prosecution of
the war. Add to this the fact that Lincoln wasn't
certain that a majority of Northerners would be for abolition.
Lincoln was not only a statesman, but a master politician,
and he understood that it was always perilous to get
(16:51):
too far ahead of public sentiment and opinion. Weighing all
of these things, Lincoln decided in July of eighteen sixty
two the government should adopt a strong anti slavery position,
one that could be justified on military and diplomatic ground.
He knew that freed slaves could and would fight in
(17:13):
the war on the Union side, which would be a
good thing for the Union militarily. He also knew that
abolition would bring support from the foreign capitals of the world,
a huge diplomatic victory for the Union. As a constitution man,
Lincoln would have vastly preferred for the Confederate States to
abolish slavery on their own, but that didn't happen, wasn't
(17:37):
likely to happen, and Lincoln was now prepared to use
the power of his office, his power as commander in
chief under the Constitution, explicitly by the Constitution itself, used
that power to begin the process of ending slavery. Discussions
(17:59):
with his habited about such a bold move met with
mixed reactions. Some feared absolute chaos in the South for
an intervention precisely what Lincoln did not want. Others, like
Secretary of State William Seward, thought it was a good idea,
but thought the timing was wrong. Better to wait until
a big victory or two before announcing such a thing.
(18:24):
Lincoln actually followed Seward's advice. It was a mere five
days after Antietam, on September twenty second, eighteen sixty two,
that Lincoln made public the first part of what has
come to be called the Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery, and a terrific piece of
storytelling as always by Professor Bill McLay, author of Land
of Hope. And you're hearing one heck of a story
about the beginning of the Civil War, right up to
the Emancipation Proclamation, and Lincoln's difficult with weaving this all
(19:01):
together and just trying to do one thing and one
thing alone, and let's hold the Union together, and by
almost any means necessary. My goodness, his ability to fire
bad generals may be one of his great talents. The
story of the Civil War, the story of so much more,
a part of our Story of America series here on
(19:21):
our American Stories
And we returned to our American stories. Up next another
installment of our series about Us, the Story of America series,
with Hillsdale College professor and author of Land of Hope
Bill McLain. The Civil War was a culmination of many things,
most of all slavery in the election of Abraham Lincoln.
(00:31):
Let's get into the story. Take it away, Bill, So.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's how the Civil War begans. It was a long road,
a century of the making, and why that, in retrospect,
almost had to happen in some form or another. Few
at the time believed it would take as long as
it took to end, or that the casualties would pile
(00:58):
up as high as they did. But for Lincoln there
was one goal, and one goal alone, the preservation of
the Union. It's important to keep in mind it was
not until well into the nation's bloodiest war at the
ending of slavery itself would become an explicit Northern objective.
(01:19):
And you could see that from the elaborate emphatic professions
of Lincoln in the first Inaugular Address that he had
no intention, no inclination, As he said, he changed the
status of slavery as it had existed as the war began,
the North had big advantages, no doubt. North had more
(01:41):
people twenty two million compared to the South's nine million,
four million of which were slaves. The North had economic
power that dwarfed the South, from banking to manufacturing, to
shipping and other commerce, and they produced most of the
iron and coal in the country. There was a huge
advantage of the North wind when it came to transportation,
(02:01):
to railroads, ships, even horses, and actual navy, and a
pretty good sized one at that. So the odds at
first glance were clearly stacked against the South. But there's
more to war than material and industrial strength. The advantages
(02:22):
the South enjoyed were significant, and they were intrinsic advantages
rather than extras. For one thing, victory for the South
had a much easier path to win. The South merely
had to hang on to their territory. They had to
hang on to their own land, their own homes. They
had only to hold on to what was already theirs.
(02:46):
The dwarfs had to fight and win control over huge
amounts of hostile territory seven hundred and fifty thousand square
miles of territory that's nearly the size of Mexico and
after when the North would then have the unenviable task
(03:06):
of trying to get this out to rejoin the Union,
forcing it back into the Union that it had rejected.
Most important of all, the North was fighting for an idea,
the idea of the Union. The South was fighting to
defend their homes. But there were more reasons for Southerners
to feel optimistic for a triumph in this battle. One
(03:29):
thing the South had on its side was time. If
the South could simply prolong the war and its casualties
long enough for northerns to get tired of the cost
of war and human life and financial costs too, they
would just quit the war and let the South go
and continue to trade with their new Southern partner. There
(03:50):
was a saying in Afghanistan and some of their leaders
that fleshes this line of thinking. Now, asked about America's
superior fighting vower and military technology, an Afghan general li lented,
they have the watches, we have the time. It was
true of the twenty first century, and it was a
(04:11):
very large advantage to South enjoyed over the North. The
South also had the hope that one of its great
European trading partners completely dependent on cotton might eventually join
the south side, so, for example, Great Britain. The South
also had remarkably talented military leaders, arguably the best in
(04:32):
the nation, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and others who
left the Union Army to join the Confederacy's cause. And
the South was filled with young and older men alike
who were used to shooting. They looking used to shooting
squirrels at long distances for food and the fun. They
were great marksmen, and great marksmen make for a fierce
(04:57):
and effective army of resistance. And that's not all. Lincoln
was up against it at home. He was a new president.
His victory was not a big one. It was crushing
in the northern states. But remember he did not get
(05:18):
a single electoral vote from the southern state, so his
support was not long wide or deep. And he didn't
have a true national army. There'd always been this prohibition
against the notion of outstanding army, going back to the founding.
So Lincoln would have to create a national army, and
(05:39):
he'd have to do it very quickly, and it wasn't pretty.
He called up the state militias. It would show up
at mustering points, dressed up in their home uniforms, which
ranged in colors from red to black to emeralds. When
New York Regiment even came dressed in Turkish garb with
(06:00):
fez hats. The army, in short, was visibly a mess.
To turn this assembly of men into a functioning army
would take time, skill, and real patience. And you may
remember that this was the great task in the Revolutionary
War of George Washington, how to create a continental army
(06:23):
that would hold together, that would be effective in battle,
that would be disciplined, they wouldn't desert at the first opportunity.
Lincoln face this challenge as well, and Lincoln knew that
he'd have to get some early wins in this new war,
because if he had a string of early losses, people
(06:43):
would lose confidence in the Union's ability to achieve its objectives.
And there was a sentiment of feeling that this war
wasn't going to last very long. It was very deeply
ingrained in the North because of the superiority advantages that
were baked into the cake. Lincoln when he signed up
(07:05):
his first volunteers, it was for a ninety day enlistment,
hoping that some decisive wins, especially a strike on the
Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia, which was only ninety miles
from Washington. But that would end things? How hard could
that be? Well? That question was answered quickly, abruptly, rudely,
(07:31):
and rather decisively by the first major land battle at
bull Run, not far from the nation's capital. The force
of thirty seven thousand Union soldiers was humiliated by a
Southern force led by General Jackson Stonewall Jackson. The Northern
troops were outflanked, out maneuvered, outclassed entirely. They came racing
(07:53):
the home along with some onlookers and picnickers, observers who
thought it might be fun to watch a real life
battle in action. They would be disabused of such a
silly and trivial notion very quickly, as the North was
also disabused of the idea of this war would be
easy and quick. At the same time, the General in
(08:21):
chief Winfield Scott, a hero of the War of eighteen
twelve in the Mexican War, but a man who was
seventy four years old and not in particularly good hell.
Winfield Scott put together a grand plan of action known
as the Anaconda plant, named after the huge South American
snake that squeezes its prey to death. That was the
(08:42):
Union's plan. Used its superior navy to blockade the Southern ports,
which would have the twofold negative effect. I'm not letting
much needed imports into the region, and the economy of
the South depended on imports, and it depended on exports.
The anaconda squeezed the economic engine out of the South,
cotton by not letting the South's biggest export out of
(09:05):
the country. It was a great strategy on paper, but
there was only one problem. It took too long.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And you've been listening to Hillsdale College Professor Bill McLay
tell one heck of a story about the Civil War.
It start a century in the making, but as Professor
McLay said, almost inevitable civil war still happening all over
the world. But this one, our civil War, one of
the most catastrophic of all time. We continue the story
(09:38):
with Bill McLay, the story of America's Civil War here
on our American Stories. And we returned to our American
(10:11):
Stories and with the latest installment of our Story of
America series with Professor Bill McLay, author of Land of Hope.
When we left off, Lincoln had developed a plan with
General Winfield Scott to embargo and end the ongoing rebellion
in the South with his Anaconda Plan. Let's return to
the story.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Winfield Scott put together a grand plan of action known
as the Anaconda Plant. It was a great strategy on paper,
but there was only one problem. It took too long.
Embargoes take time, Blockades take time, and time was not
on Lincoln's side, so he replaced the aging Scott with
(10:58):
the first of his many generals, with General George McClellan,
whose task was to advance the war and take the
battle to the South with speed and decisive victories. McClellan
soon disappointed Lincoln too. He was a stiff and snobby man,
a west Pointer who believed in thorough preparation and training
(11:21):
of his troops, and as a result, delayed any move
on Virginia until March of eighteen sixty two, what must
have felt like an eternity for Lincoln. It didn't help
matters that the arrogant McClellan had opened contempt for Lincoln's
intellect and talents. Eventually, McClellan was ready to take on
the objective of seizing Richmond and came up with a
(11:42):
very good plan to do it. Instead of a direct
southern march through the tough terrade of northern Virginia, McClellan
would move his army one hundred and twenty thousand down
the Potomac River to the Chesapeake Bay, south to the
peace of land between the James and York Rivers where
Jamestown and Yorktown were, and then proceeded from the southeast
(12:08):
up to Richmond. McClellan's opening salvo went well. His army
was within twenty five miles of Richmond, but that early
success was squandered due to McLellan's endless fussing and hesitancy,
which all but lost any military momentum. Into that vacuum
came General Lee of the Confederacy, who, through a series
(12:29):
of brilliant tactical moves, beat back McClellan's advances, all of
which ended in a union retreat. War is tricky, and
soon Lee would suffer from precisely the opposite problem of
McClellan's void. By confidence, maybe too much confidence, Lee decided
to attack the north in Pennsylvania and Maryland, a bold
(12:53):
thing to do, as the South's advantage was fighting a
defensive war, and yet this was going on off in
a big way, hoping that it would show potential European
supporters reasons why they ought to join the South, cause
the South was strong enough to prevail. Well, it turned
(13:14):
out to be a bigger gamba with far more risk
than the League could have imagined. It turns out General
McClellan's intelligence unit secured these battle plans secret orders that
gave the Union troops a huge advantage. It was a
(13:36):
big advantage, but once again McClellan failed to act decisively,
giving Lee time to gather his forces. The two armies
would meet at Antietam Creek in Maryland on September seventeenth,
eighteen sixty two. Nearly twenty two thousand men were killed
or wounded that day, making it a single bloodiest day
(13:58):
of a very bloody war. There were no winners or
losers in this battle. Essentially, it was a tie, a wash.
Lincoln was not pleased with mccleouin's performance. Mcclollan was removed
and replaced with a more decisive and aggressive general, General
(14:19):
Ambrose burned the side. As tough as Antietam was for
the North, and it was tough, it may have been
tougher on the South. Their ability to track support from
nations around the world had been hindered. Lincoln saw an opportunity.
He'd always been bondering waves to weaken the institution of slavery.
(14:39):
Though never a self described abolitionist, he's always known what
slavery was and spoke often about what it was an
unqualified evil. Now he was getting pressure from abolitionist groups
and Republicans to do something. Lincoln understood that a move
in this direction would be appealing to world powers and
(15:00):
gain their support, while simultaneously ending any real chance of
outside support by foreign powers of the Confederacy's cause. It
was a two for one deal in the end. So
what held Lincoln back from moving earlier on this site. Well,
(15:21):
it turns out slavery was protected by the Constitution itself.
Lincoln had said this many times. He even addressed it
in his campaign At his inaugural address. It was not
a mere trifle. Lincoln had a near religious view of
the Constitution. It was the north Star, along with the
Declaration of Independence by which he was guided Lincoln understood
(15:44):
the very strength and future of the Union depended on
devotion to the Constitution. He knew that if he were
to use his executive power to end slavery, he would
have to do it in a way that was also
in accord with and compliant with the Constitution. And Lincoln
had other issues to grapple with, very practical ones, tactical
(16:06):
political problems. For one thing, he wanted to keep the
border states like Missouri and Kentucky, slave states that had
not joined the Confederacy. He wanted to keep them out
of the Confederacy, and knew that any bold or sudden
moved to end slavery might well have the effect of
pushing those border states into the arms of the Confederacy,
(16:29):
which would be a disaster for the Union's prosecution of
the war. Add to this the fact that Lincoln wasn't
certain that a majority of Northerners would be for abolition.
Lincoln was not only a statesman, but a master politician,
and he understood that it was always perilous to get
(16:51):
too far ahead of public sentiment and opinion. Weighing all
of these things, Lincoln decided in July of eighteen sixty
two the government should adopt a strong anti slavery position,
one that could be justified on military and diplomatic ground.
He knew that freed slaves could and would fight in
(17:13):
the war on the Union side, which would be a
good thing for the Union militarily. He also knew that
abolition would bring support from the foreign capitals of the world,
a huge diplomatic victory for the Union. As a constitution man,
Lincoln would have vastly preferred for the Confederate States to
abolish slavery on their own, but that didn't happen, wasn't
(17:37):
likely to happen, and Lincoln was now prepared to use
the power of his office, his power as commander in
chief under the Constitution, explicitly by the Constitution itself, used
that power to begin the process of ending slavery. Discussions
(17:59):
with his habited about such a bold move met with
mixed reactions. Some feared absolute chaos in the South for
an intervention precisely what Lincoln did not want. Others, like
Secretary of State William Seward, thought it was a good idea,
but thought the timing was wrong. Better to wait until
a big victory or two before announcing such a thing.
(18:24):
Lincoln actually followed Seward's advice. It was a mere five
days after Antietam, on September twenty second, eighteen sixty two,
that Lincoln made public the first part of what has
come to be called the Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery, and a terrific piece of
storytelling as always by Professor Bill McLay, author of Land
of Hope. And you're hearing one heck of a story
about the beginning of the Civil War, right up to
the Emancipation Proclamation, and Lincoln's difficult with weaving this all
(19:01):
together and just trying to do one thing and one
thing alone, and let's hold the Union together, and by
almost any means necessary. My goodness, his ability to fire
bad generals may be one of his great talents. The
story of the Civil War, the story of so much more,
a part of our Story of America series here on
(19:21):
our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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