Have to hand it to the people on this one. While
President James Monroe tried compensated emancipation - buying slaves' freedom and then
returning them to Africa, it was not a popular policy or a successful
one.
Other Presidents who might have leaned towards
abolition had to be very careful. I would compare it, just for the sake of comparing,
to gay marriage today as an issue. That is, right or wrong, many people in the United
States oppose making it legal, so if I was to campaign for that issue, it would be
difficult to get elected, especially in certain
states.
Presidents at that time knew they could not get
elected with a majority if they were openly for abolition. The only reason Lincoln won
- and remember, he did not campaign for abolition, only stopping slavery's spread - was
because there were two Democrats running against him, and they split the vote. He only
had 41% of the final vote.
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