Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln announced the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, weeks before the midterm elections, knowing many Northern voters had backed a war for the Union, not for abolition. Republicans lost a number of House seats and governorships that November, and Democrats campaigned openly against emancipation. He issued the final proclamation on 1 January 1863 anyway, opening the Union army to Black soldiers, nearly 180,000 of whom served. It led directly to the Thirteenth Amendment.