The New York Times bestselling author of Saving Freedom and cohost
of Morning Joe assesses President Abraham Lincoln's deft timing for
the Emancipation proclamation and its consequences for America.
Abraham Lincoln's pragmatism combined with a devotion to higher ideals
made him the American leader capable of accomplishing the seemingly
impossible: saving the Union and ending slavery.
The year was 1862. The Union's first large scale offensive, the
Peninsula campaign led by Major General George B. McClellan, had been
disastrous. Doubt in Congress grew that President Lincoln and his
generals could win the war. In Saving the Union, Joe Scarborough
analyzes the hard choice Lincoln faced--the debate raging inside him
over how quickly to move toward emancipation, if at all.
Lincoln feared that if he moved too quickly, he would lose support for
the war, including the conservatives in the border states, thus ensuring
the dissolution of the Union. When he finally issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, he rallied his party, demoralized the South, won over
Europe, and changed the course of human history. But only because he
timed it perfectly.
Scarborough reveals how Lincoln's brilliant Shakespearean insight that
"ripeness is all" made him the greatest American president after
Washington, and the bridge between the Founding Fathers and Civil Rights
leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr and John Lewis. As Saving the
Union clearly demonstrates, no other leader in his time, and few in
American history, could have effectively balanced the preservation of
the Union with the liberation of the slaves as Lincoln did--and that has
made all the difference. Scarborough offers a fresh and thoughtful
examination of this key event in Lincoln's presidency, and pays tribute
to his astute leadership--a legacy which as indelibly influenced the
course of America's development and continues to inspire us today.
