The Real Lincoln Book Review

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be all the emancipated would have. What could they do with their newly acquired freedom? Lincoln opposed black suffrage, any right to serve on jury, and any black ever holding office (12).

But just how popular was abolition? DiLorenzo discredits the view of the northern population being entirely comprised of advocates of abolition. "No abolitionist was ever elected to any major political office in any Northern state. The overwhelming majority of white Northerners cared little about the welfare of the slaves and treated the blacks who lived among them with contempt, ridicule, discrimination, and sometimes violence" (25). Obviously, Lincoln and many others did not care at all about racial equality.

The theme of chapter three appears to be that Lincoln had no intentions of emancipating slaves unless he believed he was forced to do so. When Union General Fremont released a proclamation stating that anyone who resisted the Federal army would have their land taken and their ...

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what he was doing was noble and that he had every right to take military action against the cruel South. This, however, backfired once the death toll came rolling in. Northerners found the idea of dying for "black strangers" appalling (43). Later, this would inspire Lincoln to take dictatorial power. Chapter four's theme is revealing Lincoln's ulterior motives of developing an American System, an agenda specifically pointed out in the very beginning of this chapter: "I am in favor of a national bank... in favor of the internal improvements system and high protective tariff: (54). The proof doesn't get any more real than that. This statement, however, is one of Lincoln's few throughout ...

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