Did Lincoln know freeing the slaves would cause civil war?

by joewoodley

I'm wondering about why Lincoln did what he did. His decision caused the most deadly war in american history. Did he expect a civil war? If so, why didn't he wait or just let later presidents outlaw slavery when it would have been accepted enough in the south to not cause war? Did he believe in it so much that he couldn't have waited or were there other factors at play? (Im not disagreeing with his position, just wondering if his motivations were different than what is widely believed)

DfenseAgainstDarkArt

There seems to be a misconception in your question. The order of events was not:

  1. Lincoln frees enslaved people
  2. The South secedes from the Union and the Civil War begins

The order of events was:

  1. Lincoln is elected president in November, 1860 and takes office in March, 1861.
  2. South Carolina secedes from the Union in December, 1860, and the other Southern states secede from the Union in April, 1861. The Civil War begins.
  3. June, 1862: Congress passes a law outlawing slavery on all United States federal government property.
  4. July, 1862: Congress passes a law that will free enslaved people under the control of persons who have rebelled against the United States.
  5. Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation in September, 1862, which declared that all enslaved persons in territory held by the South would be freed as of January 1, 1863, in the eyes of the United States government. This did nothing to free enslaved people in the Northern states.

To answer your question more generally, there were reasons to believe that the election of Lincoln as President would result in some kind of conflict between the North and the South, as some influential Southerners had made threats to that effect during the campaign for president.

As to his beliefs, Lincoln was unsure that the federal government had the authority to free enslaved people. He believed that all people should be free, but he also believed in allowing slavery to continue if it was required for the unity of the United States. In a letter to Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, Lincoln wrote:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm

To fully answer your question, then: Lincoln did not attempt to abolish slavery which then sparked the Civil War, and if he had been faced with that decision, he would have chosen not to emancipate enslaved people despite his personal beliefs that they should be free.