that gradualism, like compensation and colonization, was a means to the end, not the end itself. “[My] expressions of preference for gradual over immediate emancipation, are misunderstood,” Lincoln explained. He had thought a gradual timetable would make states more likely to abolish slavery, but if “those who are better acquainted with the subject” preferred immediate emancipation, “most certainly I have no objection.” Lincoln’s basic “wish,” he explained, “is that all who are for emancipation in any form, shall co-operate.” So when Arkansas went on to adopt immediate abolition in early 1864,
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