They took it for more than it was, or anyhow for more than it said; the container was greater than the thing contained, and Lincoln became at once what he would remain for them, “the man who freed the slaves.” He would go down to posterity, not primarily as the Preserver of the Republic-which he was-but as the Great Emancipator, which he was not.

Shelby Foote

Tags: politics abraham-lincoln slavery american-civil-war politics-of-the-united-states slavery-in-america slavery-in-the-united-states

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