Abstract
President Abraham Lincoln entered the war in order to preserve the union of the United States rather than to abolish slavery. Indeed, he repeatedly emphasized that his paramount objective in the war was to save the union, not to free the slaves. However, Lincoln has been such pressured by Abolitionists and Radical Republicans to issue an Emancipation Proclamation that he accepted, in that way, to transform the character of the war. Moreover, he realized that fighting in order to free the slaves would motivate his soldiers. On June the 19th 1862, Abraham Lincoln began the redaction of the Emancipation Proclamation. On September the 22nd 1862, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was warning that on January the 1st, he would free all the slaves in the states still in rebellion against the Union.
