1860
Despite his abolitionist leanings, Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) entered the presidency pledging not to interfere with slavery in those states where it existed. To avoid alienating slaveholding border states that remained loyal to the Union, he steadfastly resisted vocal prodding from abolitionists who urged him to make the dismantling of slavery a goal of the Civil War. But by the summer of 1862, Lincoln recognized the emancipation of those enslaved within Confederate-held territory as both a military and a moral necessity.
