In today's political parlance, Lincoln would have been called a flip-flopper.
Eric Foner was the keynote speaker Friday in a two-day Civil War symposium in AmherstAMHERST – In today’s political parlance, Abraham Lincoln would have been called a flip-flopper.
But looked at another way, Lincoln “was able to grow and rethink his positions. The hallmark of Lincoln’s greatness was his capacity for growth,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author Eric Foner. ”That’s what made him a great leader.”
Foner spoke Friday night on the opening night of a two-day conference called “Civil War Causes and Consequences,” organized by the Five College Learning in Retirement Program.
We at The Republican are launching a four-year project to tell the story of how our community coped with 48 months of war, from April of 1861 to April of 1865.
On the first Sunday of each month we will run a report of what was happening here 150 years ago during that month.
• Part 1 -- The Civil War is upon us: The events of April 1861 changed Springfield and the nation forever
• Part 2 -- A call to arms: President Lincoln upgraded call for troops in second month of Civil War
• Part 3 -- Boom Town: Springfield becomes vital to the Civil War effort
• Part 4 -- The Springfield Republican recounts 'Saddest day this country ever saw'
• Part 5 -- John Brown's spirit marches with Union soldiers
• Part 6 -- Springfield Armory fuels the remaking of a city
Panel discussions will be held all day Saturday at Mahar Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts, capped at 4 p.m. with a talk by former Amherst College professor David Blight, who now teaches at Yale.
Foner, who won a Pulitzer for “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery,” spoke on the subject “Lincoln, Emancipation and Race in America” to about 400 people who gathered for his talk.
Lincoln first got involved in politics when he was 22 and was not an abolitionist, a group that advocated the immediate emancipation.
Rather Lincoln, when he was a Whig party member, was concerned more about infrastructure, building schools and roads and schools. “He said very little about slavery,” Foner said.
But eventually Lincoln, who was considered a great orator, started talking about human equality and his belief that slaves should “have the opportunity to improve their condition.”
Foner said that Lincoln “condemned slavery as a form of theft. He believed in the right to “be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.”
He also wanted America to set an example for the world. He didn’t “believe in manifest destiny,” that the United States was obligated to fight for democracy across the world. He felt “we should perfect ourselves. We should demonstrate” that freedom. He felt that “slavery is an obvious contradiction.”
At that same time, he didn’t believe that blacks should have the right to hold office or vote. Rather he believed in what was called colonization, that blacks should be freed and emigrate. He felt that “racism is so deep it was impossible for black people to achieve equality.”
But on Jan. 1, 1863 as president, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. However that document did not include between 700,000 and 800,000 slaves held by border states that were under the control of the Union.
By then he had “abandoned the idea of colonization,” Foner said. In freeing the 3.2 million slaves owned by states in the South, Lincoln said, “I enjoin you to go to work for a reasonable wage.”
The union army also needed black soldiers and Lincoln knew the union would not win the war without them.
Eventually Lincoln understood that “some blacks are very intelligent,” and they along with soldiers should be able to vote.
“He started thinking seriously about a biracial society,” Foner said.
When the war was over, Lincoln did not say, “mission accomplished, we won, God is on our side.”
He embraced the idea that it “was America’s slavery” that the nation as a whole was complicit, Foner said. He also did not talk about what the South was owned for their “property.” Instead he talked about “what is the legacy of slavery. What are the requirements of justice.”