Editor’s note: This is the 47th in a series of essays on the history and meaning of the American political tradition. If it had been up to him, Abraham Lincoln would not have chosen the title of “The Great Emancipator” for himself. He would have preferred “Preserver of the Union.” In 1862, in a letter to Horace Greeley, he made clear that his chief purpose in the war was to “save the Union in the shortest way under the Constitution.” “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not eit … (read more)
