Slavery's End In Tennessee

7. The Politics of Emancipation

7 The Politicsof Emancipation Although contrabands had gained virtual freedom, only white politicians could make it legal. Northern Republicans and their Southern unionist allies originally waged war just to save the Union . Growing numbers of contrabands and their many services pressured the politicians to broaden war aims. The federal government's eventual decision to do so forced many reluctant unionists to abandon an institution with which they had always lived. After secession in 1861, Southern unionists had nowhere to turn but to the Republicans who controlled the federal government . During that summer, Senator Andrew Johnson and Kentucky Congressman John J.Crittenden induced the Republican majority in Congress to pass resolutions renouncing abolition as a possible war aim, thereby encouraging cooperation with Southern unionists .! Johnson's subsequent appointment as military governor made him the key intermediary between Tennessee unionists and the administration . Federal invasion of the state in 1862 enabled unionists to return home , where they soon chafed under military governance . Realizing that successful restoration of civilian rule depended upon expansion of unionist support, Johnson led a campaign to restore public allegiance to the federal govern ment . As they had done during the secession referendum, 98 The Politics of Emancipation unionists denied that Northerners intended to destroy slavery and pointed for proof to the congressional war aim resolutions and the army's exclusion ofrunaways. Tointensify their impact, Johnson and his associates threatened to support emancipation should continued rebellion force them to choose between slavery and the Union .2 Increasing slave disloyalty and changing federal policies embarrassed the unionists. This group tried to excuse the army's impressment of slave laborers and nonenforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law as unavoidable consequences ofan efficient prosecution ofthe war. Secessionists, the y asserted, were more responsible for damage suffered by slavery because secession had caused the war and federal occupation . During most of 1862 unionists expected to salvage slavery after a quick defeat of the Confederacy. 3 During 1862-63 Tennessee's two congressmen tried to restrain federal encroachments upon slavery. Horace Maynard and Andrew J.Clements voted against the new article of war prohibiting military enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. Both fought the Second Confiscation Act, but Maynard joined the Republican majority during the final vote.? This division illustrated the dilemma southern unionists faced because numerical weakness limited their influence on federal policy while making their safety dependent upon federal troops. When the national government adopted distasteful policies, unionists were forced to choose from three unpleasant alternatives : they could switch their allegiance to the enemy, a step few combat-hardened unionists could stomach; they could dissent , an action that might damage the unity and effectiveness of the war effort; or they could submit, the painful andhumiliating choice that alone would satisfy their powerful allies. If emancipation had to happen, then both congressmen favored a program that Lincoln had proposed to the border states. Under the plan , the states would pass gradual eman99 The Politics of Emancipation cipation laws, and the federal government would help states compensate slaveholders . Because the two congressmen considered emancipation harmful to society, they demanded that the federal government colonize any slaves who were freed .5 The increasingly strained relationship between Tennessee unionists and the Republican administration reached a critical point in September 1862, when Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation threatened to free all slaves in the state . Because of it, Thomas A. R. Nelson, the most prominent unionist behind Confederate lines in East Tennessee, converted to the rebel side. In a widely circulated address, he condemned the proclamation as an act of"despotism . . . atrocity and barbarism ." Confederates won only a few such converts , but the possibility of significant enemy gains terrified unionist leaders who were behind federal lines. The Memphis Bulletin denounced the proclamation as "unconstitutional and inexpedient, and calculated to crucify the Union men of the Border States. "6 Because it included an escape clause, the proclamation did not immediately force displeased unionists to choose between opposition and submission . The president promised to exempt any area that renewed its allegiance to the federal government by sending representatives to Congress before January 1, 1863. Through the threat of emancipation , Lincoln sought to restore at least the semblance ofloyalty in federally occupied areas, the only places where congressional elections could conceivably occur. He urged Johnson to hold elections so that Tennesseans could "avoid the unsatisfactory prospect before them ." A year earlier, after Confederate congressional elections, unionist winners in...