In the 1860 presidential and congressional elections, Lincoln was elected President and the Republicans took control of both the Senate and the House.

Republicans picked Lincoln as their nominee for President.

Why?

His moderate views made him more likely to appeal to large numbers of voters across the Northeast and the Midwest.

The South, however, did not view Lincoln as a moderate candidate. They viewed him as an abolitionist and a warmonger.

As hard as it is to believe, Lincoln did not receive even one vote in ten southern states.

Furthermore, the South had become so alienated from the rest of the country that southern Democrats refused to support the candidate of northern and midwestern Democrats, Stephen Douglas.

After the election victory of Lincoln and the Republicans, the South recoiled in horror. They did not believe that Abraham Lincoln could be trusted to keep his oft-repeated promise that he would not tamper with slavery in states where it already existed—that he only sought to prevent the spread of slavery.

Southern leaders were convinced that Republican policies would destroy the South’s slave-based economy.

Southern demagogues fanned fears that Republican policies would cause the slaves to revolt—“raping white women and murdering white families.”

Maddened by such fears, the South took a foolish course.

As has often been noted, if the South had stayed in the Union, they could have prevented the Republicans in Congress from passing legislation that was harmful to Southern interests.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court was sympathetic to Southern views that the Constitution protected their right to own slaves.

Then, after four years of an ineffectual Lincoln presidency, the South probably could have elected a Democratic candidate for President merely by backing the same candidate as the northern and midwestern Democrats did.

If the South had not reacted in fear and panic, they would have realized they “had nothing to fear but fear itself.”

But it is the nature of evil to deceive us.

Fears caused by centuries of mistreatment of people with African ancestry overwhelmed such rational, common sense ideas as staying in the Union and driving the Republicans from power in future elections.

Lincoln vastly underestimated the South’s fears and the South’s resolve.

Fearing the destruction of their economy by Republican policies that favored the North and fearing the destruction of their lives by rebellious slaves, Southern states began leaving the Union—the United States of America. They united to form the Confederacy—the Confederate States of America.

In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln did his best to calm the fears of the South. He ended with this eloquent plea for peace:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies . . .”

“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Nevertheless, the crisis deepened.

The new President quickly learned that the plight of Fort Sumter was far more urgent than he had realized. In about six weeks, Fort Sumter would run out of supplies.

There was no easy way to re-supply Fort Sumter. Why? It sat in the middle of the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. It was surrounded by Confederate artillery!

Deeply alarmed, Lincoln and others began looking for a way to defuse the crisis.

There was even some support for a constitutional amendment that would forever guarantee the existence of slavery in the South.

No wonder Frederick Douglass despaired!

Again and again in American history, whites in the North and South had compromised their differences by sacrificing the liberty of blacks.

In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, whites compromised by permitting the slave trade to continue for at least another 20 years!

In 1820, whites compromised by permitting the South to add new slave states and by promising the North that slavery (and cheap black labor) wouldn’t spread to the North.

In 1850, whites compromised by agreeing that the North would increase its efforts to return runaway slaves to their masters in the South.

Now, in 1861, it looked as if whites might compromise to preserve the Union by adopting a constitutional amendment to guarantee that slavery would exist forever in the South.

How would the new President respond?

As a practical politician, Lincoln was willing to compromise any issues except “the extension of slavery into the national territories.”

Lincoln’s refusal to compromise on this one issue was not based on morality and principle.  He was not worried about the bad effects on black people from spreading slavery!

Lincoln’s refusal to compromise on this one issue was based solely on politics. He feared that a compromise on extending slavery into the national territories “would disrupt the party that elected him”!

No wonder Frederick Douglass despaired!

All of this talk of compromise by whites at the expense of the liberty of blacks was a far cry from Abraham Lincoln’s motto for the Republican Party: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”

Weary of such betrayals of his people, Frederick Douglass lost hope.

“Disappointed by Lincoln’s Inaugural Address, alarmed by public persecution, he fear[ed] for his people. For the first time in twenty years, he [lost] faith in the American Dream.”

Wondering whether blacks would be better off fleeing America, Douglass chartered a boat to investigate Haiti as a possible haven.

Then the South made a fatal mistake.

Hotheads didn’t merely want Fort Sumter to be abandoned because it ran out of food. They wanted to take credit for forcing Fort Sumter to surrender.

It is the nature of evil to deceive us.

These shortsighted fools did not see the bloodshed of war. They were too blinded by delusions of grandeur and glory.

These deaf prophets did not hear the weeping that comes from death and suffering. They were too deafened by bragging about grandeur and glory.

These wicked men did not understand that starting a war would eventually empower Lincoln to do something he could never have done in peacetime—free the slaves!

And so, “[a]t four thirty in the morning of April 12 a signal mortar sounded and a red ball ascended in a lazy curve to burst over the fort.”

“All day and into the rainy night the encircling batteries pounded at the fort” and its Star-Spangled Banner.

After a bombardment that lasted thirty-four hours, Fort Sumter surrendered.

Across the South, people cheered.

But in the North—in the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”—people rose in fury at the traitors who dared to fire on the Star-Spangled Banner.

Stephen Douglas raced to the White House.

This defeated Democratic candidate for President pledged his support—and the support of all northern and midwestern Democrats—to join with the Republicans to save the Union!

At that very moment, Stephen Douglas was dying from cancer. Nevertheless, he spent the last few months of his life making speeches that rallied the North to fight for the Union that Abraham Lincoln and he both loved.

As for Frederick Douglass, he didn’t go to Haiti.

Instead, he shouted, “God be praised!”

Frederick Douglass did not rejoice because he liked war.

Frederick Douglass rejoiced because of what he saw, heard and understood.

Frederick Douglass saw that war would bring liberty for his people.

Frederick Douglass heard God’s Truth marching on.

Frederick Douglass understood the Union could only be saved by granting liberty to Americans of African ancestry.

Frederick Douglass rejoiced because he understood that Liberty and Union truly are one and inseparable, now and forever!

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This blog is based on passages in my book Visions of America, at pages 77-82 (first published in 2004, together with Visions of the Church). For the supporting sources, please see the endnotes to those pages of my book.

For more of my thoughts inspired by Juneteenth, please read “Juneteenth: George Washington”, “Juneteenth: Frederick Douglass Learns To Read”, “Juneteenth: Frederick Douglass Denounces America’s Hypocrisy”, “Juneteenth: Harriett Beecher Stowe Writes Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, “Juneteenth: Frederick Douglass Urges an Earnest Struggle for Liberty”, “Juneteenth: Sojourner Truth and Harriett Tubman”, “Juneteenth: Harriett Beecher Stowe Prophesied Doom for America”, and “Juneteenth: Abraham Lincoln Transformed by Moral Outrage”.

For my thoughts on related themes, please read my blogs “Raising the Star-Spangled Banner—Americans”, “Racism Is America Gone Astray”, “The 500-Year Marathon To Overcome Racism”, “The ‘United States’ Compared to ‘America’”, “George Washington Refuses To Become a King”, “Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—Unifying Americans”, “Martin Luther King, Jr.—Restoring Hope and Giving a Vision”, “Nationalism Is Patriotism Gone Astray”, “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”, “We Need Inspiring Visions of a Bright Future. Why?”, “Speaking Up”, “Irresistible Hurricanes of the Holy Spirit”, “Parking Cars”, “St.  Francis of Assisi Made the Way of Jesus Great Again”, “Hypocrisy: Taking Away What You Gave”, “Pandemic Wisdom: Visions of America”, and “Pandemic Wisdom: Scattering the Church”.