Just before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a group of ministers urged him to grant immediate freedom to all slaves. “It is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter,” Lincoln wrote. “And if I can learn what it is, I will do it.… I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation; I must study the plain physical facts of the case … and learn what appears to be wise and right. The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree.”