Lincoln, Part 10

Reading audio



2005-3-9

(MUSIC)

Announcer:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

(MUSIC)

By the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, the American Civil war had
been going on for more than a year. The Union had won some battles.
The Confederacy had won others. But neither side had gained enough
military or civilian targets to win the war.

President Abraham Lincoln needed a major victory. He was losing
the support of both politicians and citizens. A major victory would
confirm that his policies were correct. It also would make it easier
for him to make an important announcement.

For a number of months, he had been planning an announcement
concerning Negroes who were held as slaves in the south. It would
come to be known as the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell about Abraham Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation.

VOICE 1:

At the end of August,
eighteen-sixty-two, Confederate troops under the command of Robert
E. Lee defeated the main Union army at Manassas, Virginia.

The battlefield was less than fifty kilometers from Washington.

The year before, Confederate troops had sent the Union army
fleeing from that same battlefield. Now they had done it again.

With this latest victory, General Lee decided on a major move. He
would carry the war into the northern states.

Lee took his army of sixty-thousand men across the Potomac River
into Maryland. He ordered some of his men to capture the Union
position at Harpers Ferry. He moved the others to Sharpsburg, a town
on the Potomac River.

He put his men into position along Antietam Creek, just outside
of town. His lines extended almost three kilometers. There, at
Antietam, he would make his stand.

He was still close enough to Virginia to withdraw, if the Union
force following him proved too strong.

VOICE 2:

The Union force arrived in the middle of September. It did not
attack immediately. It spent one full day getting into position
along Antietam Creek across from the Confederate army. It attacked
the following day at sunrise.

The Union general, George McClellan, planned to attack all along
the Confederate line at the same time. But this did not happen.

First, Union troops attacked one end of the line, which extended
into a field full of tall corn plants. Then they attacked the center
of the line, which was in an old, deeply sunken road that gave it
good protection. Finally, they attacked at the other end of the
line.

For each northern attack, General Lee was able to move men to
where they were needed. The northern troops got within twenty-five
meters of the Confederate line. But they could not break through
anywhere.

VOICE 1:

On the first day of battle at Antietam, Lee lost twenty-five
percent of his men. On the second day, the two armies faced each
other without firing. They were too tired to fight.

As they rested, however, fresh Union soldiers moved into
position. Lee knew they would attack with full force the next day.
He knew he could not win. Sadly, he ordered his men back to
Virginia.

It was now clear: Antietam was a northern victory.

It was not a complete victory. The Union army could have chased
the Confederate army and destroyed it. But General McClellan did not
do this. He was satisfied that he had stopped the invasion.

VOICE 2:

In Washington, President Lincoln
welcomed the news. He had waited a long time for a northern victory.

A few days after the battle, Lincoln held a special meeting with
his cabinet. He talked about the declaration on slavery which he had
prepared. It would free Negro slaves in the rebel states of the
south.

"As you remember," he said, "I put the declaration aside several
weeks ago, until I could issue it supported by a military victory.
The action of the army against the rebels has not been exactly what
I should have liked. But the rebels have been driven out of
Maryland. And Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion."

President Lincoln said he thought the time was right to announce
the Emancipation Proclamation. The cabinet made some minor changes
in the document, and Lincoln signed it.

VOICE 1:

Newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said:

VOICE 2:

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and
Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on
the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as
slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States,
shall then become and be forever free.

"The government of the United States, including the military and
naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such
persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make
for their actual freedom."

VOICE 1:

President Lincoln had tried to keep the question of slavery out
of the Civil War. To him, there was just one reason for fighting: to
save the Union. Nothing meant more to him than preventing the nation
from splitting up.

Lincoln feared that the issue of slavery would weaken the
northern war effort. Many men throughout the north would fight to
save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves.

Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that did
not leave the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. He
could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose
of the war was to free the slaves.

As Lincoln waited for a Union victory to announce his
Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote a letter to the "New York
Tribune" newspaper. The letter was to prepare the public for what
was to come. This is what Lincoln said:

VOICE 2:

"My chief object in this struggle is to save the Union. It is not
either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without
freeing any slave, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing
all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing
some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

"What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I
believe it helps to save the Union. This is how I see my official
duty. It does not change my wish -- as a person -- that all men
everywhere could be free."

VOICE 1:

President Lincoln failed to keep the question of slavery out of
the Civil War. As the war went on, month after long month, people in
the north began to see it as more than a struggle for national
unity. They began to see it as a struggle for human freedom.

Abolitionists were active. In speeches and writings, they said
over and over again that slavery was evil.

As public opinion began to change, anti-slavery members of
Congress gained more power.

By the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, they had enough support to
pass laws ending slavery in Washington, D.C. and United States
territories. They also pushed through Congress a bill that would do
much to end slavery in the states.

VOICE 2:

The bill was called the "Confiscation Act. " It gave the federal
government the power to confiscate, or seize, the property of all
persons who supported the southern rebellion. Slaves were considered
property. So any slaves seized under the act would become free
immediately. Slaves who escaped from rebel slave owners also would
be free. The bill would not affect slaves owned by persons who
supported the Union.

President Lincoln did not like the Confiscation Act. He thought
it interfered with his wartime powers as Commander-in-Chief.

VOICE 1:

However, Lincoln was under great pressure from Abolitionists. So
he signed the new law. But he did not plan to enforce it. He still
hoped for a plan that would free the slaves slowly, over time.

He proposed such a plan, but only for the border states between
north and south. Under his plan, the federal government would buy
slaves in the border states and free them.

Lawmakers from the border states rejected Lincoln's plan. And
that is when he decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

We will tell about the effects of that decision next week.

(MUSIC)

Announcer:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry
Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.