Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President

The first weeks after the publication of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation were not good ones for Lincoln. Much as he told Methodist leader John McClintock that he was convinced that the proclamation "was right," he still "feared its effects upon the border states." And, sure enough, in east Tennessee, Unionist leader Thomas Nelson renounced his support of Lincoln and called for resistance to Lincoln's "infamous" proclamation. Even within the cabinet, there was apprehension. "It imparted no vigor but rather depression and weakness to the North," grumbled Gideon Welles. From there things only proceeded to get worse. "It is six days old," Lincoln wrote to Hannibal Hamlin on September 28, 1862, "and while commendation in newspapers and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man could wish, the stocks have declined, and troops come forward more slowly than ever. This, looked soberly in the face, is not very satisfactory."

Still more bad news, based on popular discontent with "the management of the War and of the Finances, the treatment of Gen. McClellan, and the general inefficiency and incapacity of the Administration," came in October and November. The debacle on the Peninsula was blamed by the New York newspapers, not on McClellan, but on Secretary of War Stanton. State elections installed Democratic gov

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