‘In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country…’
Robert E. Lee, in a letter to his wife, Mary
27 December 1856
The Confederacy was just as determined to separate itself from the Union as Lincoln was to prevent it following his election. Southern slave states continued to secede from the Union and join the Confederate States. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated on 4 March 1861, six more states – Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas – had all seceded. Four more states – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina – followed after the fall of Fort Sumter on 13 April 1861. Delaware and Maryland were slave states that opted not to secede, while the state of Kentucky declared neutrality. Missouri voted to secede on 31 October 1861, but Lincoln quickly prevented the state’s departure by declaring martial law. A portion of Virginia wanted no part of the Confederacy, and on 23 May 1861 voted to secede from the state and become the Union state of West Virginia.
Lincoln’s first act as president was to declare secession illegal. He knew that a division of the country into two separate nations would be disastrous and he was willing to do anything to prevent it, even if it meant going to war.
When Lincoln took office as president, the commander-in-chief of the Union forces was Brigadier General Winfield Scott. Scott was an army veteran of fifty-three years who had been commanding troops since before the war of 1812. He had a plan that might win the war for the Union. Unfortunately, Scott’s health was failing and his political enemies were pressing for his removal. He recommended another long-time army veteran named Robert E. Lee as his replacement. Lee refused the offer and resigned his commission to join the Confederate Army. He would become the Union’s greatest nemesis and Lincoln would spend the next four years looking for a general who could defeat Lee.
The next four years would prove a trying time for Lincoln. The war that everyone said would last no more than three months dragged on and on, with one Confederate victory after another. Lincoln had lost General Winfield Scott’s counsel in November 1861 when Scott had stepped down as commander-in-chief due to poor health and political pressure. Lincoln was forced to appoint a replacement who was doomed from the beginning.
George B. McClellan was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and came from an influential family. He saw his president as beneath him and treated Lincoln with disrespect on more than one occasion. McClellan made plans for a campaign that never seemed to evolve beyond the planning stage, with McClellan very unwilling to decisively take action and carry the fight to the Confederates. Eventually, Lincoln relieved him of his command. There followed a string of commanders-in-chief of the United States Army as Lincoln searched for a general who could win the war and save the Union.
Meanwhile, Lincoln dealt with anti-slavery advocates who continued to petition the president to ban slavery. Lincoln continually refused to take such action, which could result in the loss of the slaveholding states of Missouri and Kentucky. Slavery was leverage, and Lincoln intended to use it to his best advantage.