Lincoln promises that he will use "utmost care" not to destroy property or disturb "peaceful citizens."

 Lincoln 16 April 1861--Lincoln's call for [as it turned out] 75,000 soldiers

"I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.

"Newspaper buildings and stores of old newspapers--burnt. Southern history destroyed.

Farm animals and crops destroyed, houses destroyed. Unrecorded deaths everywhere. 

Sherman loosed on Georgia.

300,000 men dead. How many women and children? How many hundreds of thousands doomed to poverty for four generations? Would the parents of dead members of the 75,000 have voted to pay slaveowners something to liberate their slaves? What was the monetary cost of the war to the north?

How far ahead was President Lincoln looking?  What effect did he think his proclamation would have in the South? Could he have thought a little longer before making a proclamation? Was there absolutely no way Lincoln could have delayed this proclamation and avoided the war?