"What Shall We Do with the Negro?": Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America

3: AMNESTY, APPRENTICESHIP, AND THE FREEDMEN’S FUTURE

three AMNESTY, APPRENTICESHIP, AND THE FREEDMEN’S FUTURE W hile war was creating major changes in the South, 1863 proved to be a crucial year for policymaking in Washington. Military events continued to be of primary concern, but the progress of the war was not the only issue on people’s minds. President Lincoln was eager to begin the process of bringing rebellious Southerners back into the Union. In addition, that central and flawed question that troubled whites—“What shall we do with the negro?”—was forcing its way into public debate and into policy. Undeniably, the march of armies and the Emancipation Proclamation signaled a changed society for the South. As conflict undermined the institution of slavery and as freedmen played a greater role in the war, Northern citizens and policymakers looked toward the future. Clearly, major decisions were in order. Despite the importance of the issue, however, and despite the conflicting efforts of abolitionists, reformers, conservatives, and racists, the future of African Americans only rarely claimed center stage. Nevertheless, policy was being formed, and fateful decisions were being made. In this process, the most influential actor was President Abraham Lincoln . As commander in chief, his views carried a special weight that no congressman or group of congressmen could match. Similarly, as the head of his party and its chief spokesman, he occupied a commanding position from which to respond to political tides and unexpected developments. Moreover, because Lincoln was in a position to initiate proposals and take executive action, his ideas tended to establish the context or set the boundaries within which discussion would evolve. Despite strong protest from Republicans in Congress, he issued proclamations that defined the government’s approach to both white Southerners and the freedmen. Democrats, congressional Republicans, and various groups of citizens all would speak out on the Amnesty, Apprenticeship, and the Freedman’s Future 95 future status of African Americans, but Lincoln’s voice would prove most influential. In 1863 and the early months of 1864, Lincoln gave careful thought to Reconstruction and the consequences of emancipation. On these issues, he developed strong but complex positions. Careful analysis of Lincoln’s policies reveals that he continued to be deeply concerned, indeed solicitous, about the feelings of rebellious Southern whites. He seemed determined to find a way to bring them back into the Union on a cordial and cooperative basis after the fighting was over. In pursuit of that end, he was ready to offer them significant and attractive inducements, including inducements that came at the expense of the interests of the freedmen. Although he began to stiffen his commitment to emancipation, he showed Southern whites that he was not going to insist on anything approaching racial equality. The rights of African Americans in freedom was a topic he did not pursue in public, even when a test of his policy of colonization failed disastrously—and he barely raised it in private. Reunion was the compelling priority for him, and eventual emancipation for all the slaves was becoming nonnegotiable; efforts toward racial progress in postemancipation society were neither compelling nor nonnegotiable. Lincoln showed little interest in the favorable reports about freedmen that were coming from the occupied South, and he repeatedly indicated that he was willing to constrict the future of African Americans as a means of gaining white acceptance of their freedom. Perhaps the president’s heart was free of prejudice, as Frederick Douglass later commented, but Douglass also observed that Lincoln was “preeminently the white man’s president.”1 Whatever the president’s private feelings may have been, Lincoln chose not to take political risks to improve the future status of black people. He also showed little desire to educate the public away from its long established racism. An overriding devotion to reunion, a practical pessimism about America’s racial attitudes, and the calculus of political advantage in American society convinced him that other goals were more feasible and more important. While many Democrats opposed any change in the status of black Americans, many Republicans in Congress and in the North expressed dissatisfaction with Lincoln’s policies toward both the freedmen and Southern whites. There is a tendency today to assume that Abraham Lincoln wanted to free the slaves long before 1863 and temporarily stayed his hand only because 96 northern developments he wisely recognized that public opinion had not yet developed to the point at which emancipation would be...