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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

‘If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.’ Comment in about 200 words.

  • UPSC 1986
  • Origins of Modern Politics

Abraham Lincoln's words, from his August 1862 reply to Horace Greeley's editorial "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," capture the deliberate priority he placed on preserving the Union over the immediate abolition of slavery.

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