While Lincoln has since been praised for this act, his efforts were a war tactic. In freeing all enslaved people, he understood that this would take the labor force away from the South, which could either cripple them or act as a threat that would force the South to stay in the Union. However, he was also worried of the "consequences" of his actions, foreseeing an endemic racial divide in the nation, which is why he met with five distinguished, Black abolitionists to tell them that Congress had provided the funds to send Black people to another country when the Emancipation Proclamation would be enacted. So, while Abraham Lincoln was opposed to the enslavement of people, he was also opposed at that point to black political and social equality. But then, two years later in private and in his last public speech, which led to his assassination, Lincoln supported voting rights in the United States for some African Americans.