CW, 7:506–507
In discussions with Joseph T. Mills, a Wisconsin judge, and the former Wisconsin governor Alexander W. Randall, Lincoln recorded his impatience with the views of the Green Bay, Wisconsin, editor Charles D. Robinson. As a War Democrat, Robinson had supported the national administration, even after it issued the Emancipation Proclamation. War Democrats like Robinson understood Lincoln’s approach to the war as outlined in the president’s famous open letter to Horace Greeley: all actions aimed at restoration of the Union and only at restoration of the Union. As the Lincoln administration now insisted on the abolition of slavery as a prerequisite for reunion, Randall believed that War Democrats had to support General George B. McClellan in the fall elections. “This puts the question on a new basis, and takes us War Democrats clear off our feet, leaving us no ground to stand upon.” Lincoln, with his reelection hopes fading, feared the response of men like Randall to the course of the war. His draft response and the comments Judge Mills recorded, however, clearly show that African Americans had pushed their way into the center of the president’s policies, where they would remain. McClellan and the Democrats claimed to want to restore the Union “as it was,” on the one hand, and, on the other, to conduct the war without black soldiers. But the North could not fight without its black troops—“we would be compelled to abandon the war in 3 weeks”—and the South would not return to the Union if it could retain the institution of slavery. “You cannot concilliate the South,” he maintained, “when the mastery & control of millions of blacks makes them sure of ultimate success.” Lincoln would not even consider a peace proposal if it meant reenslaving those black men who had fought bravely in the Union army. “I should be damned in time & in eternity for so doing.” For information on the meeting with Mills and Randall and Robinson’s views, see: CW, 7:501–502.
Columbia Demands her Children! lithograph by Joseph E Baker, Boston, 1864. This antiwar print condemns a distracted and foolish Abraham Lincoln for the mounting cost of the Civil War. Columbia, the symbol of the nation, insists that Lincoln halt the endless demand for more soldiers. It is one of many Democratic efforts to whip up opposition to Lincoln and bring an end to the war. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-89748.
. . . My own experience has proven to me, that there is no program intended by the democratic party but that will result in the dismemberment of the Union. But Genl McClellan is in favor of crushing out the rebellion, & he will probably be the Chicago candidate. The slightest acquaintance with arithmetic will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed with democratic strategy. It would sacrifice all the white men of the north to do it. There are now between 1 & 200 thousand black men now in the service of the Union. These men will be disbanded, returned to slavery & we will have to fight two nations instead of one. I have tried it. You cannot concilliate the South, when the mastery & control of millions of blacks makes them sure of ultimate success. You cannot concilliate the South, when you place yourself in such a position, that they see they can achieve their independence. The war democrat depends upon conciliation. He must confine himself to that policy entirely. If he fights at all in such a war as this he must economise life & use all the means which God & nature puts in his power. Abandon all the posts now possessed by black men[,] surrender all these advantages to the enemy, & we would be compelled to abandon the war in 3 weeks. We have to hold territory. Where are the war democrats to do it. The field was open to them to have enlisted & put down this rebellion by force of arms, by concilliation, long before the present policy was inaugurated. There have been men who have proposed to me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson & Olustee to their masters to conciliate the South. I should be damned in time & in eternity for so doing. The world shall know that I will keep my faith to friends & enemies, come what will. My enemies say I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. It is & will be carried on so long as I am President for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done. Freedom has given us the control of 200 000 able bodied men, born & raised on southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has sub[t]racted from the strength of our enemies, & instead of alienating the south from us, there are evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our own & rebel soldiers. My enemies condemn my emancipation policy. Let them prove by the history of this war, that we can restore the Union without it. . . .