How did the Civil War affect politics in the United States?
On December 14, 1863, nearly a year after Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, Congressman James Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill supporting a
federal prohibition on slavery. A month later, Missouri Senator John Henderson
submitted a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment.
Though for many the question of slavery had become moral and ideological, it was
also political, and in March 1864, in the early lead-up to the presidential election,
Representatives James Wilson of Iowa and Isaac Arnold of Illinois offered a speech
lauding the recent proposal and tying the measure directly to Lincoln’s re-election.
Upon accepting the Republican nomination for president, Lincoln publicly endorsed
constitutional emancipation for the first time....Lincoln argued that emancipation
would so undermine the morale of the Confederacy that it would weaken their military
and bring about a swift end to the war. The President undertook his own campaign for
passage of the amendment, and his political allies and cabinet members helped to
further the cause, convincing constituents and state legislatures to appeal directly to
their congressmen for passage of the amendment.

A) In order to accelerate the end of the war, military strategies focused on freeing enslaved
people in order to serve as spies for the Union Army.
B) In order to accelerate the end of the war, politicians worked to develop legislation that
would bring an end to slavery and weaken the Confederacy.
C) In order to end the war, Congress developed legislation that limited the president’s ability
to interfere in issues related to slavery.
D) In order to end the war, the President worked with his political allies to negotiate a
peaceful resolution with the southern states.