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General John C. Frémont was a respected explorer and soldier who had been the Republican Party’s candidate for president in 1856. As commander of Union forces west of the Mississippi River, Frémont issued a proclamation in August 1861 banning slavery in Missouri. Lincoln feared this might drive the border states out of the Union, so he rescinded the order and removed Frémont from his post.

“The rebels are numerous and powerful, and their cause is Slavery,” Sumner said in an October 1861 speech. “In the name of Slavery, and nothing else, has all this crime, destruction, and ravage been perpetrated; and the work is still proceeding.... It is often said that the war will make an end of Slavery. This is probable. But it is surer still that the overthrow of Slavery will at once make an end of the war.” Lincoln had to work with the Radical Republicans in Congress. He appointed some abolitionists to high-ranking positions in the government. But during the first two years of the Civil War, Lincoln maintained that the war was being fought to preserve the Union, not to prohibit slavery. HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SLAVES At the start of the war, slaves provided a military advantage to the South. Slaves could be used to support Confederate armies as laborers, building roads and fortifications. Also, their presence working on southern farms allowed more white southerners to fight against the federal military, known as the Union Army. To weaken the South, in 1861 Congress passed a law called the Confiscation Act. It declared that any slave who worked to help

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RECONSTRUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH