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Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union
"The time has come now," Abraham Lincoln told his cabinet as he presented the preliminary draft of a "Proclamation of Emancipation." Lincoln's effort to end slavery has been controversial from its inception-when it was denounced by some as an unconstitutional usurpation and by others as an inadequate half-measure-up to the present, as historians have discounted its import and impact. At the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Louis Masur seeks to restore the document's reputation by exploring its evolution.
Lincoln's Hundred Days is the first book to tell the full story of the critical period between September 22, 1862, when Lincoln issued his preliminary Proclamation, and January 1, 1863, when he signed the final, significantly altered, decree. In those tumultuous hundred days, as battlefield deaths mounted, debate raged. Masur commands vast primary sources to portray the daily struggles and enormous consequences of the president's efforts as Lincoln led a nation through war and toward emancipation. With his deadline looming, Lincoln hesitated and calculated, frustrating friends and foes alike, as he reckoned with the anxieties and expectations of millions. We hear these concerns, from poets, cabinet members and foreign officials, from enlisted men on the front and free blacks as well as slaves.
Masur presents a fresh portrait of Lincoln as a complex figure who worried about, listened to, debated, prayed for, and even joked with his country, and then followed his conviction in directing America toward a terrifying and thrilling unknown.
Lincoln's Hundred Days is the first book to tell the full story of the critical period between September 22, 1862, when Lincoln issued his preliminary Proclamation, and January 1, 1863, when he signed the final, significantly altered, decree. In those tumultuous hundred days, as battlefield deaths mounted, debate raged. Masur commands vast primary sources to portray the daily struggles and enormous consequences of the president's efforts as Lincoln led a nation through war and toward emancipation. With his deadline looming, Lincoln hesitated and calculated, frustrating friends and foes alike, as he reckoned with the anxieties and expectations of millions. We hear these concerns, from poets, cabinet members and foreign officials, from enlisted men on the front and free blacks as well as slaves.
Masur presents a fresh portrait of Lincoln as a complex figure who worried about, listened to, debated, prayed for, and even joked with his country, and then followed his conviction in directing America toward a terrifying and thrilling unknown.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2012
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June 19, 2024
The Slow Fruit Of Liberty
In November, 1862, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay, "The President's Proclamation" in praise of President Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued on September 22, 1862. Emerson began his essay: "In so many arid forms which States incrust themselves with, once in a century, if so often, a poetic act and record occur." Emerson continued: "Every step in the history of political liberty is a sally of the human mind into the untried future, and has the interest of genius, and is fruitful in heroic anecdotes. Liberty is a slow fruit. It comes, like religion, for short periods, and in rare conditions, as if awaiting a culture of the race which shall make it organic and permanent." Emerson found Lincoln's September 22 Proclamation an "eminent example" of the slow fruit of liberty, placing it among human "acts of great scope, working on a long future, and on permanent interests, and honoring alike those who initiate and those who receive them."
Louis Masur uses Emerson's statement, "liberty is a slow fruit" as an epigraph of his book on the Emancipation Proclamation, "Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union" (2012) and also discusses Emerson's essay at length. Masur used the title for his own essay on the Emancipation Proclamation which developed into this book; and Emerson's observation could well serve as the theme of the study. Masur, Professor of American Studies and History at Rutgers University, has written extensively on the Civil War as well as on Bruce Springsteen.
The title of Masur's book refers to the 100 days between September 22, 1862, when Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation and January 1,1863, when he issued the final Emancipation Proclamation. In the central chapter of his study, Masur examines closely the highly varied public response to the Preliminary Proclamation and describes how the response set the stage for the final version. Although the Emancipation Proclamation has been written about extensively, the "100 days" has not received the degree of focus that Masur offers. He examines critical and supportive views of the Proclamation and its legality from the legal and scholarly community of the day. He discusses the differing responses from the news media, from those in military service, from the broad public and from politicians. Masur discusses the impact of the Proclamation on foreign relations and on what was feared as Britain's intervention on behalf of the Confederacy. Masur discusses the uncertain impact of the Proclamation on the mid-term Congressional elections. He discusses the military course of the Civil War during the 100 days. Most importantly, he discusses how Lincoln's own thinking evolved and solidified during this time. There were those who thought that Lincoln would fail to follow through on January 1, 1863, Masur examines Lincoln's slow, patient, but consistent course of action during this time and his determination to see the Proclamation through to its conclusion. The final Proclamation became perhaps the defining act of his presidency.
In the two surrounding chapters of the book, Masur covers more familiar ground in showing the slow generation of the proclamation from the early days of the Civil War to the impact of the Proclamation after it was issued. Masur emphasizes throughout the "slow fruit" of liberty as the Emancipation Proclamation expanded the aims of the Civil War from the original goal of preserving the Union to the additional and related goal of ending slavery.
Masur shows how Lincoln's ideas grew slowly and as a response to the slow change in public perception of the war. He pays strong attention to the pragmatic realism of Lincoln's approach in his attempt to keep the loyalty of the border states and to avoid getting too far ahead of public opinion. The Proclamation followed the fortunes of the War. Lincoln became convinced that he had the authority to issue the Proclamation as a matter of military necessity in his position as commander in chief. Lincoln, in Masur's account, remained strongly committed to Constitutionalism.
With the issuance of the final Proclamation, African Americans began to serve in the Union Army in great numbers. Masur devotes substantial attention to the African American contribution to the war effort and to the reaction both of free African Americans and of slaves to the Emancipation Proclamation. He examines the impact of the Proclamation on the soldiers in uniform and finds that, on the whole, the opposition that the Proclamation surely would have received in the early days of the war had been muted substantially by time and by events. Masur discusses the way in which Emancipation changed the ways in which the war was fought and how Lincoln implemented the goals of the Proclamation with an ever surer sense of purpose. Lincoln's efforts culminated in the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which bars slavery and involuntary servitude.
The book offers a detailed exploration of the historical record using some little examined source material. For example,Masur makes extensive uses of the diary of Count Adam Gurowski,, a Polish exile who worked for the State Department. Gurowski recorded his frequently acerbic and uncomplimentary thoughts on Lincoln and what Gurowski perceived as Lincoln's temporizing. Masur makes good use of Gurowski's diary in exploring changing perspectives on the Emancipation Proclamation.
Masur also offers his own analysis and assessment of the historical record. For example, in an insightful passage he writes:
"Union was a condition; liberty an idea. The Emancipation Proclamation remade the war into a new cause. It gave meaning to lives lost, and it gave purpose to a conflict that seemed fatally directionless -- a battle here, a battle there, but no vision beyond restoring the Union, which was no vision at all. This is not to say that Union was not an important ideal -- only that it was a restorative rather than a transformative idea. Colonel Theodore Gates of the 20th New York State Militia saw into the future: 'President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation will take its place among the most important papers of the age & will by & by stand side by side with out Declaration of Independence.'"
The book emphasizes the slow, deliberative character of Lincoln's development of the Emancipation Proclamation. This "slow fruit" character of the development of liberty was of crucial importance at the time. It may have contemporary importance as well. The book includes detailed endnotes together with four different versions of the Emancipation Proclamation, but it lacks a bibliography. Readers interested in understanding American history and in reflecting on the American experience will benefit from Masur's book.
Robin Friedman
In November, 1862, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay, "The President's Proclamation" in praise of President Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued on September 22, 1862. Emerson began his essay: "In so many arid forms which States incrust themselves with, once in a century, if so often, a poetic act and record occur." Emerson continued: "Every step in the history of political liberty is a sally of the human mind into the untried future, and has the interest of genius, and is fruitful in heroic anecdotes. Liberty is a slow fruit. It comes, like religion, for short periods, and in rare conditions, as if awaiting a culture of the race which shall make it organic and permanent." Emerson found Lincoln's September 22 Proclamation an "eminent example" of the slow fruit of liberty, placing it among human "acts of great scope, working on a long future, and on permanent interests, and honoring alike those who initiate and those who receive them."
Louis Masur uses Emerson's statement, "liberty is a slow fruit" as an epigraph of his book on the Emancipation Proclamation, "Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union" (2012) and also discusses Emerson's essay at length. Masur used the title for his own essay on the Emancipation Proclamation which developed into this book; and Emerson's observation could well serve as the theme of the study. Masur, Professor of American Studies and History at Rutgers University, has written extensively on the Civil War as well as on Bruce Springsteen.
The title of Masur's book refers to the 100 days between September 22, 1862, when Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation and January 1,1863, when he issued the final Emancipation Proclamation. In the central chapter of his study, Masur examines closely the highly varied public response to the Preliminary Proclamation and describes how the response set the stage for the final version. Although the Emancipation Proclamation has been written about extensively, the "100 days" has not received the degree of focus that Masur offers. He examines critical and supportive views of the Proclamation and its legality from the legal and scholarly community of the day. He discusses the differing responses from the news media, from those in military service, from the broad public and from politicians. Masur discusses the impact of the Proclamation on foreign relations and on what was feared as Britain's intervention on behalf of the Confederacy. Masur discusses the uncertain impact of the Proclamation on the mid-term Congressional elections. He discusses the military course of the Civil War during the 100 days. Most importantly, he discusses how Lincoln's own thinking evolved and solidified during this time. There were those who thought that Lincoln would fail to follow through on January 1, 1863, Masur examines Lincoln's slow, patient, but consistent course of action during this time and his determination to see the Proclamation through to its conclusion. The final Proclamation became perhaps the defining act of his presidency.
In the two surrounding chapters of the book, Masur covers more familiar ground in showing the slow generation of the proclamation from the early days of the Civil War to the impact of the Proclamation after it was issued. Masur emphasizes throughout the "slow fruit" of liberty as the Emancipation Proclamation expanded the aims of the Civil War from the original goal of preserving the Union to the additional and related goal of ending slavery.
Masur shows how Lincoln's ideas grew slowly and as a response to the slow change in public perception of the war. He pays strong attention to the pragmatic realism of Lincoln's approach in his attempt to keep the loyalty of the border states and to avoid getting too far ahead of public opinion. The Proclamation followed the fortunes of the War. Lincoln became convinced that he had the authority to issue the Proclamation as a matter of military necessity in his position as commander in chief. Lincoln, in Masur's account, remained strongly committed to Constitutionalism.
With the issuance of the final Proclamation, African Americans began to serve in the Union Army in great numbers. Masur devotes substantial attention to the African American contribution to the war effort and to the reaction both of free African Americans and of slaves to the Emancipation Proclamation. He examines the impact of the Proclamation on the soldiers in uniform and finds that, on the whole, the opposition that the Proclamation surely would have received in the early days of the war had been muted substantially by time and by events. Masur discusses the way in which Emancipation changed the ways in which the war was fought and how Lincoln implemented the goals of the Proclamation with an ever surer sense of purpose. Lincoln's efforts culminated in the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which bars slavery and involuntary servitude.
The book offers a detailed exploration of the historical record using some little examined source material. For example,Masur makes extensive uses of the diary of Count Adam Gurowski,, a Polish exile who worked for the State Department. Gurowski recorded his frequently acerbic and uncomplimentary thoughts on Lincoln and what Gurowski perceived as Lincoln's temporizing. Masur makes good use of Gurowski's diary in exploring changing perspectives on the Emancipation Proclamation.
Masur also offers his own analysis and assessment of the historical record. For example, in an insightful passage he writes:
"Union was a condition; liberty an idea. The Emancipation Proclamation remade the war into a new cause. It gave meaning to lives lost, and it gave purpose to a conflict that seemed fatally directionless -- a battle here, a battle there, but no vision beyond restoring the Union, which was no vision at all. This is not to say that Union was not an important ideal -- only that it was a restorative rather than a transformative idea. Colonel Theodore Gates of the 20th New York State Militia saw into the future: 'President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation will take its place among the most important papers of the age & will by & by stand side by side with out Declaration of Independence.'"
The book emphasizes the slow, deliberative character of Lincoln's development of the Emancipation Proclamation. This "slow fruit" character of the development of liberty was of crucial importance at the time. It may have contemporary importance as well. The book includes detailed endnotes together with four different versions of the Emancipation Proclamation, but it lacks a bibliography. Readers interested in understanding American history and in reflecting on the American experience will benefit from Masur's book.
Robin Friedman
January 20, 2015
A thorough scholarly study of the Emancipation Proclamation and its times. Masur provides a good amount of detail on the various calculations Lincoln made before releasing the Proclamation. The book covers the time period between Lincoln’s issuing of the preliminary and the final emancipation proclamations.
Although many still deny that the Civil War was really about slavery, this was how America largely saw the issue in 1861. It was a subject of obsession by the President, Congress, and the media. Masur thoroughly covers the public reaction to the preliminary proclamation and how that reaction set the stage for the final proclamation. He covers the responses from supporters and critics, the media, the army, the public, the politicians, and the international community. He also describes the course of the war’s military campaigns during this period, and how Lincoln’s thinking on the issue evolved. Masur describes the deliberative character of Lincoln himself and how it affected events.
Critics from Lincoln’s time on down have ridiculed the Proclamation as one that did not free a single slave, claimed to free slaves in places that the Union did not control, and allowed slavery to exist in the border states and in Union-controlled areas of the South. But, as Masur and historians before him have pointed out, this criticism ignores the fact that Lincoln issued the proclamation under his war powers as commander-in-chief and it was politically impossible for him to free slaves in Union-controlled areas without the consent of Congress, and, by implication, the public. Although Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery, he felt a duty to balance these convictions against the danger of losing half of the Union’s constituency. Nor would it have been wise for him to issue the proclamation at a time when Union armies were suffering defeats at the hands of the Confederates; this would make the Emancipation Proclamation seem like an act of desperation. Masur makes a convincing case that the Proclamation, even if it didn’t immediately free all slaves, did guarantee the eventual end of slavery.
The Proclamation was also accompanied by the enlistment of black soldiers in the Union army, and Masur describes their contribution to the Union war effort. He also shows how the public thinking on the issue evolved; many Union soldiers could not claim to be fighting to destroy slavery at the beginning of the war, but many, like Lincoln and the American public, came around to modifying their opinion on the issue for a variety of different reasons.
A rich and thorough book on the subject.
Although many still deny that the Civil War was really about slavery, this was how America largely saw the issue in 1861. It was a subject of obsession by the President, Congress, and the media. Masur thoroughly covers the public reaction to the preliminary proclamation and how that reaction set the stage for the final proclamation. He covers the responses from supporters and critics, the media, the army, the public, the politicians, and the international community. He also describes the course of the war’s military campaigns during this period, and how Lincoln’s thinking on the issue evolved. Masur describes the deliberative character of Lincoln himself and how it affected events.
Critics from Lincoln’s time on down have ridiculed the Proclamation as one that did not free a single slave, claimed to free slaves in places that the Union did not control, and allowed slavery to exist in the border states and in Union-controlled areas of the South. But, as Masur and historians before him have pointed out, this criticism ignores the fact that Lincoln issued the proclamation under his war powers as commander-in-chief and it was politically impossible for him to free slaves in Union-controlled areas without the consent of Congress, and, by implication, the public. Although Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery, he felt a duty to balance these convictions against the danger of losing half of the Union’s constituency. Nor would it have been wise for him to issue the proclamation at a time when Union armies were suffering defeats at the hands of the Confederates; this would make the Emancipation Proclamation seem like an act of desperation. Masur makes a convincing case that the Proclamation, even if it didn’t immediately free all slaves, did guarantee the eventual end of slavery.
The Proclamation was also accompanied by the enlistment of black soldiers in the Union army, and Masur describes their contribution to the Union war effort. He also shows how the public thinking on the issue evolved; many Union soldiers could not claim to be fighting to destroy slavery at the beginning of the war, but many, like Lincoln and the American public, came around to modifying their opinion on the issue for a variety of different reasons.
A rich and thorough book on the subject.
January 6, 2019
hard to read even for me and I love footnoted history. I saw the author lecture and his lecture was FABULOUS and gave wonderful information about personalities around the historical events. I wish this had more personality. I did learn there was far more to the Emancipation Proclamation than I ever knew but I felt like I was wading thru it.
April 16, 2023
An excellent account of the hundred days between the Preliminary and Final Emancipation Proclamations. Masur ably recounts the political, moral and legal pressures on Lincoln and others in the last quarter of 1862. The Proclamation, issued as a military necessity, recast not only the war, but the future of the country. Too often, modern scholars have belittled the Proclamation, asserting that it freed not a single slave (not true). But as Masur recounts, even the noted contemporary critic of Lincoln, the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, came to acknowledge by 1864 that he was mistaken in prematurely criticizing the president for not rashly embracing abolitionist principles.
January 3, 2013
Having read Team of Rivals, I wanted to continue my study of Lincoln as a leader. Masur's book provided more depth about a particular event in Lincoln's leadershp. The history is engaging (but few can live up to Goodwin's ability to report history in a very readable form). There's insights into Lincoln's character, especially as he slowly recognizes that his plans for sending freed slaves to Africa or South America are not viable. The book tends to present multiple perspectives on each decision Lincoln made. At times this becomes tedious. However, for anyone who wants to know about American history, this book is worthy of a read.
January 25, 2013
This is a wonderful addition to the many Lincoln books written over the years. The evolution of the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln's thoughts and hand, much less the evolution of acceptance by the America people and Union army is detailed perfectly in this book by Louis P. Masur. Well done, a must read.
February 28, 2013
Traces Lincoln's decision making process from the year before he made the emancipation proclamation to the 100 days before when he announces it will go into effect in 100 days to after the actual proclamation. Book is largely quotes of what others said/did to influence Lincoln and then what it seemed he did in response. What comes across is Lincoln as a careful, thoughtful man.
September 27, 2012
this is one of the best history books I have read in a while. Excellent background and careful look at E.P.'s wording. superb use of elite and ordinary people's thoughts on the E.P.
March 23, 2015
Another good piece of scholarship regarding the end of slavery in America. View my "read" books list if you want more on this topic.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews