Lincoln Could He Have Preserved the Union
From the time the South demanded the return of Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens, tension had been building in expectation of Lincoln's reply. The options available to Lincoln were limited, and those that were available were further limited by constraints of time and man-power.Lincoln's options were also limited by his goals. Lincoln had a set agenda, with preserving the Union at the head of the list. Lincoln also aimed to preserve Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. Lincoln's most pressing goal was to instigate the war without seeming to be the aggressor. This proved to be the most difficult goal, because to achieve this, he had to know how far to push without seeming to push at all. An additional goal was to perhaps lure the border states onto the northern side. This was an important goal because it fell in line with Lincoln's un-hostile attitude. By being attacked first, he could say he was responding to an act of war on the United States. One of Lincoln's options was to sit by and do nothing. This was not really an option, however, because abandoning his soldiers at this fort would not only lower the morale
Lincoln, for a time, also entertained the idea of compromise. The southern resolve was so concrete that this idea was abandoned rather quickly. Considering the resolve of the Southern states, Lincoln for a while considered a military invasion. This, however, was not feasible. Lincoln's forces were so scattered, it would take weeks on end to produce enough soldiers to achieve this goal. An estimate by General in chief Scott suggested "5,000 regular troops and 20,000 volunteers." (Current 50) The time frame for collecting this number of soldiers was much greater than the supplies in Sumter could last. Fort Sumter was also reinforced by surrounding forts in Charleston Harbor, meaning a loss of soldiers could be expected also. Lincoln was faced with a dilemma when he had to decide between peace or unity. The southern resolve eliminated any chance of compromise, so Lincoln had to chose the route which seemed the best for the Union. He could not be seen as aggressive, because if he did he risked losing the support of the border states, which could reduce the Union to nothing. To reiterate, the southern state
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Approximate Word count = 755
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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