Comprehensive and cogent. This book convincingly argues that the complete destruction of slavery was high on the minds of radical Republicans and Lincoln. Abolition was not the purpose of the war, but slavery was decidedly its cause. Restoration of the Union through suppression of rebellion would inevitably result in freeing slaves. The author clarifies that slavery was constitutionally legitimate as a matter of states' rights, but not outside the states where such "positive laws" existed. In short, slavery was local, but freedom was national. Military emancipation and the Emancipation Proclamation were lawful means to free slaves under the laws of war, but after the cessation of conflict the military justification would cease and the complete abolition of slavery after the end of conflict depended on a constitutional amendment, the thirteenth. ( )