Answer: President Lincoln justified the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure intended to cripple the Confederacy. Being careful to respect the limits of his authority, Lincoln applied the Emancipation Proclamation only to the Southern states in rebellion. He knew most northerners did not want to end slavery. “You . . . overestimate the number in the country who hold such views,” he told one abolitionist. He feared that any action to emancipate, or free, enslaved African Americans might make the border states secede. Why was President Lincoln cautious about making the abolition of slavery a goal of the war? Lincoln believed that slavery was wrong, but he did not want to turn the slave-holding border states against the Union. Also, he was not sure that enough people in the Union would fight against slavery.
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