Why did people forget that Lincoln and congress signed the paperwork that made it a constitutional right to make slaves "personal property" in 1857. They also forgot that he tried to pass the Merrill Tariff, in 1861 that was mostly an extremely high tax on slaves, which the south had a whole lot of since it was mostly agricultural. The South decided, rather than paying taxes on slaves, they wanted to be seperate from the northern government and start it's own union. The south was loosing the war and in order to gain more support, changed it's tune (as most politians are known to do) and turned antislavery. If the US government (aka "the north") wasn't going to make money on slavery, then no one was going to own slaves. The famous speach of Lincolns, was a political stratedgy. He actually did not personally beleive that "all men are created equal".... So why or who decided that we needed to keep all this a secret?
Remember the west was fast becoming more populated. Those who lived in the west did not own slaves. They are the people that Lincolns advisers wanted to win over support of the war and is why they went "antislavery".
Forgot to add, Lincoln personally owned 4 slaves himself...
Remember the west was fast becoming more populated. Those who lived in the west did not own slaves. They are the people that Lincolns advisers wanted to win over support of the war and is why they went "antislavery".
Forgot to add, Lincoln personally owned 4 slaves himself...