"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it." Lincoln, 1862.
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I think you overlook that for many white northerners legislating against slavery during the war and the recruitment of black soldiers was a practical necessity that they believed would end the war and help save the Union.
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Though now that I reread your post it looks like that IS what you are saying.
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Not even abolitionists but nearly every officer besides McClellan
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Insanely, the North continued to honor the Fugitive Slave Act during the war, either returning escaped slaves to the Confederate army or imprisoning them in camps as "contraband."
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It was only abolished when Union commanders refused to keep sending enslaved people back across the border to build more Confederate garrisons.
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Before emancipation, there was the "contraband" policy. Benjamin Butler's rationalization that even if slaveowners had the law on their side and the people they made claims on were legally their property, that property was being used in rebellion & could be "confiscated."
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