Government policies during the Civil War

“The members have met their constituents and learned of marvellous conversions to the wisdom of emancipation . . . That to proclaim emancipation would secure the sympathy of Europe and the whole civilized world, which now saw no other reason for the strife than national pride and ambition, an unwillingness to abridge our domain and power. No other step would be so potent to prevent foreign intervention.”

-Source: President Abraham Lincoln, Reply to Emancipation Memorial Presented by Chicago Christians of All Denominations, 1862