jokerman
Cosmo Kramer
Junior Chimp
Posts: 6,808
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« on: March 28, 2007, 11:04:18 PM » |
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Not many people believed in total abolition. The Republican Party's platform in 1860 only professed belief in preventing the spread of slavery into the territories. There were many moderates within the party, and there were plenty of know-nothings and old fashioned whigs to complement those who joined the party purely because of the issue of slavery.
The movement of the public belief towards abolition was very gradual, and essentially occured during the civil war, not before it. Lincoln understood this and adopted an incremental approach to his own path towards being publically abolitionist.
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