The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the National Gallery of Art; gift of Mrs. Chester E. King
Accession Number
NPG.78.109
Tags
About this artwork
Despite his abolitionist leanings, Abraham Lincoln (1809â1865) entered the presidency pledging not to interfere with slavery in those states where it existed. To avoid alienating slaveholding border states that remained loyal to the Union, he steadfastly resisted vocal prodding from abolitionists who urged him to make the dismantling of slavery a goal of the Civil War. But by the summer of 1862, Lincoln recognized the emancipation of those enslaved within Confederate-held territory as both a m...