If Lincoln Had Not Freed The Slaves Analysis

In the article, "If Lincoln Had Not Freed The Slaves" Tom Wicker, the author, answers the question what if Lincoln had not freed the slaves. He seeks to give a detailed and historically accurate response to this intriguing question: What if Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, had not freed the slaves? After doing a considerable amount of research on Lincoln and his presidency, the author displays multiple scenarios for what would have happened if slavery had not been abolished. He then shows everything that was done during this time period was in fact a domino effect. For example, in the article it states the following sentence: "Had eleven undefeated Southern states returned to the Union, to Congress, and to American politics, neither the thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, the fourteenth, guaranteeing equal protection of the laws, nor the fifteenth, establishing the right to vote to persons of color and to former slaves, would have been
In my opinion, I believe that the decision he made was exceptionally clever. The Confederate army had a victory streak: "If it had not, owing to a continuing Confederate victory trend, the war might well have ended in a negotiated peace. That would have been, in effect, a Southern success, with slavery surviving much as it was before Fort Sumter" (Wicker 4). As I stated before, this also shows how everything was a domino effect. If the Union would have never won that victory, then there is no telling how long slavery may have lasted. Lincoln was not going to release the document until the Union won a battle. I truly think that Lincoln was extremely intelligent and was a very logical thinker. To add to that statement, I also believe that he structured his plans very well and did not retaliate without thinking about the consequences first. He seemed to have a lot of self-control, no matter the situation and