Abraham Lincoln: Leader or Follower?

            A leader should be responsive to popular sentiment even if it is in conflict with his or her own personal views. A president is elected by the people, and therefore represents them. If a president starts making all his decisions without peoples approval, the government might as well be a dictatorship. Lincoln demonstrates a perfect role of presidency, listening to the people's opinions about slavery before making decisions. .
             Lincoln's true feeling about slavery was basically that he was against it but also not in favor of equality. He thought that slavery was immoral, but he made the wise decision to keep the openness about his own opinion to a minimum. In fact, he even states, "I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down but I bite my lips and keep quiet" (Hofstadter 138). What he thought to himself was different to his political expressions regarding slavery. What he said to the public was what the public wanted to hear. In fact, when talking to different parties, the speech for each party started to contradict one another. On July 10th 1858, in front of an audience of abolitionists, he claimed, "Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring all men are created equal"(149), But on September 18th 1858, in front of a crowd of slavery supporters, he stated, "I will say, then, that I am not, or have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races" (150). Although this is confusing and inconsistent, he still managed to gain the consent of both sides.
             Lincoln took his supporter's opinions into account so loyally that by the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, he was in favor of completely abolishing slaver. However, this didn't automatically make him an abolitionist, because he only signed the Proclamation because it was his last shot at saving the union.