Lincoln film review

Lincoln believed that the only way to stop slavery and the slave trade was to replace a rival team in his cabinet with loyalists. The truth is that the war was approaching, and Lincoln was resolved to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, but the Congress was packed with Republicans who were opposed to Emancipation and could pass a law to re-enslave people. As a result, Lincoln was under pressure to negotiate quietly. Lincoln replaced loyalists for Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and Montgomery Blair, a fierce anti-slavery conservative. Senator John Usher was replaced as Attorney General by James Harlan, and many others in the cabinet were replaced by James Harlan and others. The actions by Lincoln to replace rivals with loyalists was aimed at drumming up support for lobbying to pass the 13th Amendment.

Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery in the United States because he felt that the slave trade was a thing of the past since other nations in the world had quickly abolished the slave trade. Furthermore, slavery according to Lincoln was against God's will and the American dream that was declared during independence stating that all Americans are equal and are entitled to freedom, equity and equal treatment before the law. At some point, Lincoln asserted that the war that America was fighting was because of God's divine punishment for Americans because of engaging in slavery. This assertion is proof that President Lincoln fought to abolish slavery because it was against God's will.

Lincoln's presidential re-election ambitions were the first major stumbling block to the abolishment of slavery because the majority of Republicans who were supporting Abraham Lincoln were slaveholders. Therefore, abolishing slavery could have dealt a blow to President Lincoln's re-election bid. Another major challenge was the strong opposition that President Lincoln was facing from his cabinet and the senators that were supposed to pass the law.