On Wednesday, August 5, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln in a letter to Union General Nathaniel Banks forcefully restated his unwavering commitment to end the institution of slavery, noting that he remained “an anti-slavery man” to his very core and stating “For my own part I think I shall not, in any event, retract the emancipation proclamation; nor as executive, ever return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.”
The decisive Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in the prior month had convinced Lincoln more than ever before that the North would eventually prevail in the Civil War, thus ending once and for all time the institution of slavery in the United States of America.