Answer to Question #194587 in History for jimmy

Question

Were Abraham Lincoln's political views unique by comparison with defenders of immediate abolition, popular sovereignty, and national slavery?

 

 

Answer 1

This question requires a comparison of Lincoln’s political views with abolitionists such as William LloydGarrison, and Stephen Douglas. Garrison was started as a moderate abolitionist articulating for gradual emancipation. He also believed that the US constitution hindered emancipation because it allowed slavery in the southern states. Garrison was a militant abolitionist and pacifist who did not believe politics or any coercion could achieve God's purposes on earth. His anti-slavery actions welcomed disunion so that Free states would not have to enforce the federal fugitive slave law and no longer have to work with slaveholding states. Similarly, Douglas believed in anti-slavery and advocated for the sacred right of self-government. On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln posited that the future of self-regulation was at stake regarding how the US resolved the slavery controversy. He was against the Garrisonian abolitionists, who hoped to purify the nation of the admitted blot of slavery. Lincoln thought Americans should neither disparage the rule of law nor encourage their erring southern brethren to "secede" from or leave the Union. Therefore, Abraham Lincoln's political views were unique by comparison with defenders of immediate abolition, popular sovereignty, and national slavery.