Now this was a new slant on the question, and I
had to think over it for a while.
Sitting in the wagon of history with my feet dangling down and facing
the rear, as we all ride, I can now see that the thing was as broad as
it was long. The Union could not be preserved without freeing the
slaves, for all of what Lincoln said when he stated that he would save
the Union by freeing the slaves if he could do that, or by keeping them
slaves if he could do that, or by freeing some of them and leaving the
rest in servitude if he could do that; but that save the Union he would.
Now in my narrow way, I could see some point in freeing the slaves, but
as for the Union, I hardly knew whether it was important or not. I
needed to think it over. It might be just as well not to fight to
preserve the Union; and when I had heard men say, "I enlisted to save
the Union, and not to free niggers," as a lot of them did, I scratched
my head and wondered why I could not feel so devoted to the Union as
they did. Looking back from the tail-end of the wagon, I now see what
Lincoln meant by the importance of keeping us all under one flag; but I
didn't know then, and I don't believe one man in a hundred who shouted
for the Union knew why the Union was so important. There never was a
better cause than the one we sung for in "The Union, the Union forever!"
but thousands and thousands sang and shouted it, and died for it--how
bravely and wonderfully they died for it!--who knew as little what it
meant as I did.
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