per editorials, they continued to say, "the aim of the war must be to abolish slavery and that blacks must be allowed to join in the battle for their freedom." On the night of December 31, 1826, the president issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This was the wish that Douglass had sought and he was elated to see his fellow brother freed. Lincoln's act freed millions of blacks, who fled from their masters and took "freedom's road" to areas controlled by Union forces. Even though the blacks were now freed they wanted to fight for the Union Army. Douglass was there to help recruit black men and to even fight to legislation. As he watched 2 of his sons walk of to battle he was proud for the were going to fight for their freedom. Even though the blacks did receive a reduced pay it was just the fact that Congress passed the legislation to let them serve. Douglass and Abraham Lincoln had a meeting in August 1864 to discuss the up coming elections and how to end the war. The president was doubting that the war could be won and all the slaves would remain. So Lincoln asked Douglass to draw up plans for leading slaves out of the South in the event that a Union victory seemed impossible. Douglass left the interview convinced that the president was a friend of blacks. The evacuation plan that Douglass sent to Lincoln never had to be used. For the Union won the war and Lincoln was re-elected. Lincoln was then assassinated shortly there after and Douglass mourned the loss of a friend and a great man to the black community. With the Thirteenth Amendment passed in December 1865, slavery was officially abolished. Frederick Douglass was 47 years old, he still was active. He stepped in as an advocate for the blacks. He also kept the American Anti-Slavery Society alive after the civil war because he believed that the blacks should be allowed to vote. During 1865 Douglass traveled throughout the North he spoke out for black suffrage and then warned the ...
