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Emancipation Proclamation
(1863)
Abraham Lincoln's presidency began in March 1861 with a pledge to maintain slavery by enforcing the federal fugitive slave law. By May, however, Lincoln accept a de facto “contraband” policy that permitted Union commanders to protect and employ black fugitives who came within their lines from disloyal regions. Congress suspended federal enforcement of the fugitive slave law and provided in the summer of 1862 for the confiscation and emancipation of “contraband” slaves. Gen. George B. McClellan vehemently opposed these measures, but Lincoln soon acted as commander in chief to declare emancipation a Union war aim.
On 22 September 1862, Lincoln declared that all slaves would be freed in states or regions of states still in rebellion on the first day of the following year. After this proclamation, the prospect of pro‐Southern intervention by Britain faded. The proclamation also marked a fundamental shift in Union military policy. Initially opposed to enrolling any blacks as soldiers, Lincoln authorized an aggressive recruitment campaign immediately following the issuance of the final proclamation on 1 January 1863.
The Emancipation Proclamation was Lincoln's most direct action to hasten the end of slavery. Historians have offered varied interpretations of its relative significance in the process of wartime emancipation. Louis Gerteis in From Contraband to Freedman argues that military necessity created the conditions that first prompted Congress and later required Lincoln to adopt emancipation policies. Ira Berlin and his colleagues in The Destruction of Slavery emphasize the roles played by African Americans in securing their own liberation within the conditions created by war and federal policy. In his Pulitzer Prize‐winning Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson insists that emancipation—and the Union victory necessary to obtain it—rested fundamentally on Lincoln's leadership.
[See also: African Americans in the Military; Civil War: Domestic Course; Colored Troops, U.S.]
Bibliography
Louis Gerteis, From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy Toward Southern Blacks, 1861–1865, 1972.
Ira Berlin, Barbara J. Fields, Thavolia Glymph, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867, Series I, Vol. I: The Destruction of Slavery, 1985.
James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, 1988
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
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The Emancipation Proclamation
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(1863) Edict issued by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves of the Confederacy. On taking office, Lincoln was concerned with preserving the Union and wanted only to prevent slavery from expanding into the Western territories; but, after the South seceded, there was no political reason to tolerate slavery. In September 1862 he called on the seceded states to return to the Union or have their slaves declared free. When no state returned, he issued the proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. The edict had no power in the Confederacy, but it provided moral inspiration for the North and discouraged European countries from supporting the South. It also had the practical effect of permitting recruitment of African Americans for the Union army; by 1865 nearly 180,000 African American soldiers had enlisted. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865, officially abolished slavery in the entire country.
For more information on Emancipation Proclamation, visit Britannica.com.
US Government Guide
Home > Library > Government > US Government Guide Emancipation Proclamations
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued two Presidential proclamations that freed slaves from states in secession.
At the beginning of the Civil War Lincoln wanted the border states to remain in the Union, and so he resisted pressure from abolitionists to issue an order ending slavery everywhere in the nation. In September 1861 he ordered General John C. Frémont to revoke a military proclamation that had freed the slaves of Missourians who supported the Confederacy. In 1862 Congress passed several acts confiscating the slaves of rebels, measures that Lincoln did not support or enforce. He preferred to compensate slaveholders for the slaves who were freed. After the Union victory at Antietam, however, Lincoln decided on a bolder course. “The moment came,” Lincoln said, “when I felt that slavery must die that the Union might live.” On September 23, 1862, Lincoln issued a proclamation stating that as of the new year, all slaves within rebelling states “shall be, then, thenceforward and forever free.”
On January 1, 1863, using his authority as commander in chief, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that the slaves in areas “in rebellion against the United States” were free as of that date. It specifically exempted border states such as Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, the western part of Virginia, and parts of Louisiana in order to retain the support of Unionists in those areas. (Tennessee, although exempted, ended slavery of its own volition.)
There was no mention of compensation in the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln described it as a war measure: it enabled Union armies to obtain the services of former slaves. The proclamation was a political triumph for Lincoln. It was opposed by the Democrats, who argued that it violated Lincoln's 1860 pledge never to interfere with slavery in states where it existed. It also seemed to violate the 5th Amendment: the Supreme Court had ruled in the 1857 Dred Scott case that slaves were property, and Lincoln had emancipated slave owners' property without due process of law or compensation. Emancipation was, of course, popular with abolitionists in the North. And because of Lincoln's policy, African Americans remained strong supporters of the Republican party into the 1930s.
The emancipation of all slaves was attained with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Lincoln's refusal to compensate slave owners for their property was embodied as constitutional policy in the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868.
See also Lincoln, Abraham
Sources
John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation (1963; reprint, Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1995)
US History Encyclopedia
Home > Library > Reference > US History Encyclopedia Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln's grant of freedom, on 1 January 1863, was given to slaves in states then in rebellion. In conformity with the preliminary proclamation of 22 September 1862, it declared that all persons held as slaves within the insurgent states—with the exception of Tennessee, southern Louisiana, and parts of Virginia, then within Union lines—"are and henceforth shall be, free." The proclamation was a war measure based on the president's prerogatives as commander in chief in times of armed rebellion. Admonishing the freedmen to abstain from violence, it invited them to join the armed forces of the United States and pledged the government to uphold their new status. Unlike the preliminary proclamation, it contained no references to colonization of the freed slaves "on this continent or elsewhere."
Enshrined in American folklore as the central fact of Lincoln's administration, the actual proclamation was a prosaic document. On the day it was issued, it ended slavery legally and effectively only in limited areas, chiefly along the coast of South Carolina. Eventually, as Union forces captured more and more Southern territory, it automatically extended freedom to the slaves in the newly conquered regions. Moreover, the mere fact of its promulgation ensured the death of slavery in the event of a Northern victory. The Emancipation Proclamation may thus be regarded as a milestone on the road to final freedom as expressed in the Thirteenth Amendment, declared in force on 18 December 1865.
Although Lincoln had always detested the institution of slavery, during the first year of the war, he repeatedly emphasized that the purpose of the conflict was the maintenance of the Union rather than the emancipation of the slaves. Aware of the necessity to retain the support of both the border states and the Northern Democrats, he refrained from pressing the antislavery issue. Thus, he countermanded General John C. Frémont's emancipation order in Missouri and General David Hunter's proclamation in the Department of the South. But Lincoln signed confiscation bills, by which the private property of Southerners was subject to forfeiture, as well as measures freeing the slaves in the District of Columbia and in the federal territories. In addition, he urged loyal slave states to accept proposals for compensated emancipation.
These piecemeal measures did not satisfy the radical Republicans. Tirelessly advocating a war for human freedom, they pressured the president to implement their program. Lincoln sought to satisfy his radical Republican supporters and reap the diplomatic rewards of an anti-slavery policy—foreign powers were reluctant to recognize the slaveholding Confederacy—all without alienating the border states. The peculiar wording of the Emancipation Proclamation shrewdly balanced these conflicting interests.
The president wrote the first draft of the preliminary proclamation during June 1862. On 13 July he revealed his purpose to Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Nine days later, he read the document to the cabinet but, upon Seward's advice, postponed its publication. To promulgate the proclamation so shortly after General George B. McClellan's early summer failure to take Richmond would have been impolitic. It is also possible that Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury, desiring piecemeal emancipation, persuaded Lincoln to wait a bit longer.
During the following weeks various groups urged Lincoln to adopt an emancipation policy. However, even though he had already decided to comply with their request, Lincoln refused to commit himself and remained silent about the document then in preparation. Even in his celebrated reply to Horace Greeley's "Prayer of Twenty Millions" (22 August 1862), Lincoln emphasized that his paramount objective in the war was to save the Union, not to destroy slavery. Although he conceded that his personal wish had always been that all men everywhere could be free, it was not until after the Battle of Antietam (17 September 1862) that he believed the time had come for the proclamation. Informing his cabinet that his mind was made up, Lincoln accepted a few minor alterations and published the document on 22 September, promising freedom to all persons held as slaves in territories still in rebellion within the period of 100 days.
The reaction to the preliminary proclamation was varied. Denounced in the South as the work of a fiend, in the North it was generally acclaimed by radicals and moderates. Conservatives and Democrats condemned it, while all blacks enthusiastically hailed it as a herald of freedom.
During the 100-day interval between the two proclamations, some observers questioned Lincoln's firmness of purpose. Republican reversals in the election of 1862, the president's proposal in December for gradual compensated emancipation, and the revolutionary nature of the scheme led many to believe that he might reconsider. But, in spite of the conservatives' entreaties, Lincoln remained steadfast. After heeding some editorial suggestions from his cabinet, especially Chase's concluding sentence invoking the blessings of Almighty God, in the afternoon of 1 January 1863 he issued the proclamation.
The appearance of the Emancipation Proclamation clearly indicated the changed nature of the Civil War. It was evident that the conflict was no longer merely a campaign for the restoration of the Union but also a crusade for the eradication of slavery. In the remaining period of his life, Lincoln never wavered from this purpose. Having already said that he would rather die than retract the proclamation, he insisted on its inclusion in all plans of re-union and amnesty. His administration became ever more radical and he actively furthered the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. It is, therefore, with considerable justice that Lincoln has been called the Great Emancipator.
The president's calculations proved correct. Following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, and owing to increased evidence of federal military prowess, neither Great Britain nor any other power recognized the Confederacy; nor did any border states desert the Union. The document thus stands as a monument to Lincoln's sense of timing, his skill in maneuvering, and his ability to compromise. The freedom of some 4 million human beings and their descendants was the result.
Bibliography
Cox, LaWanda C. Fenlason. Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study in Presidential Leadership. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1981.
Franklin, John Hope. The Emancipation Proclamation. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963.
McPherson, James M. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Quarles, Benjamin. Lincoln and the *****. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.
Trefousse, Hans L. Lincoln's Decision for Emancipation. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975.
—Hans L. Trefousse/A. R.
Columbia Encyclopedia
Home > Library > Reference > Columbia Encyclopedia Emancipation Proclamation, in U.S. history, the executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America.
Desire for Such a Proclamation
In the early part of the Civil War, President Lincoln refrained from issuing an edict freeing the slaves despite the insistent urgings of abolitionists. Believing that the war was being fought solely to preserve the Union, he sought to avoid alienating the slaveholding border states that had remained in the Union. “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 do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” He wrote these words to Horace Greeley on Aug. 22, 1862, in answer to criticism from that administration gadfly; he had, however, long since decided, after much reflection, to adopt the third course.
Lincoln kept the plan to himself until July 13, 1862, when, according to the cabinet diarist Gideon Welles, he first mentioned it to Welles and Secretary of State William H. Seward. On July 22 he read a preliminary draft to the cabinet and acquiesced in Seward's suggestion to wait until after a Union victory before issuing the proclamation. The Antietam campaign presented that opportunity, and on Sept. 22, 1862, after reading a second draft to the cabinet, he issued a preliminary proclamation that announced that emancipation would become effective on Jan. 1, 1863, in those states “in rebellion” that had not meanwhile laid down their arms.
The Proclamation
On Jan. 1, 1863, the formal and definite Emancipation Proclamation was issued. The President, by virtue of his powers as commander in chief, declared free all those slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal government “as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion.” Congress, in effect, had done as much in its confiscation acts of Aug., 1861, and July, 1862, but its legislation did not have the popular appeal of the Emancipation Proclamation—despite the great limitations of the proclamation, which did not affect slaves in those states that had remained loyal to the Union or in territory of the Confederacy that had been reconquered. These were freed in other ways (see slavery). Nor did the proclamation have any immediate effect in the vast area over which the Confederacy retained control. Confederate leaders, however, feared that it would serve as an incitement to insurrection and denounced it.
Purpose of the Proclamation
The proclamation did not reflect Lincoln's desired solution for the slavery problem. He continued to favor gradual emancipation, to be undertaken voluntarily by the states, with federal compensation to slaveholders, a plan he considered eminently just in view of the common responsibility of North and South for the existence of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was chiefly a declaration of policy, which, it was hoped, would serve as an opening wedge in depleting the South's great manpower reserve in slaves and, equally important, would enhance the Union cause in the eyes of Europeans, especially the British.
At home it was duly hailed by the radical abolitionists, but it cost Lincoln the support of many conservatives and undoubtedly figured in the Republican setback in the congressional elections of 1862. This was more than offset by the boost it gave the Union abroad, where, on the whole, it was warmly received; in combination with subsequent Union victories, it ended all hopes of the Confederacy for recognition from Britain and France. Doubts as to its constitutionality were later removed by the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Bibliography
See J. H. Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation (1963); E. Foner, Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (1983).
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Law Encyclopedia
Home > Library > Legal > Law Encyclopedia This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
Emancipation Proclamation
A Civil War-era declaration, formally issued on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln, that freed all slaves in territories still under Confederate control.
The Emancipation Proclamation is often mistakenly praised as the legal instrument that ended slavery — actually, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in December 1865, outlawed slavery. But the proclamation is justifiably celebrated as a significant step toward the goal of ending slavery and making African Americans equal citizens of the United States. Coming as it did in the midst of the Civil War (1861-65), the proclamation announced to the Confederacy and the world that the abolition of slavery had become an important goal of the North in its fight against the rebellious states of the South. The document also marked a shift in Lincoln's mind toward support for emancipation. Just before signing the final document in 1863, Lincoln said, "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper."
In the text of the proclamation — which is almost entirely the work of Lincoln himself— Lincoln characterizes his order as "an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity." These words capture the essential character of Lincoln's work in the document. On the one hand, he perceived the proclamation as a kind of military tactic that would aid the Union in its difficult struggle against the Confederacy. As such, it was an extraordinary measure that carried the force of law under the powers granted by the Constitution to the president as commander in chief of the U.S. military forces. But on the other hand, Lincoln saw the proclamation as "an act of justice" that announced the intention of the North to free the slaves. In this respect, it became an important statement of the intent to abolish slavery in the United States once and for all, as well as a vital symbol of human freedom to later generations.
Lincoln had not always regarded emancipation as a goal of the Civil War. In fact, he actively resisted emancipation efforts early in the war, as when he voided earlier emancipation proclamations issued by the Union generals John C. Frémont and David Hunter in their military districts. Lincoln also failed to enforce provisions passed by Congress in 1861 and 1862 that called for the confiscation and emancipation of slaves owned by persons supporting the rebellion.
However, antislavery sentiment in the North grew in intensity during the course of the Civil War. By the summer of 1862, with the Union faring poorly in the conflict, Lincoln had begun to formulate the ideas he would eventually express in the proclamation. In particular, he reasoned that emancipation would work to the military advantage of the North by creating a labor shortage for the Confederacy and providing additional troops for the Union. While Lincoln was increasingly sympathetic to abolitionists who wished to end slavery, he was reluctant to proclaim emancipation on a wider scale, out of fear that it would alienate the border slave states of Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, which had remained part of the Union. Already stung by military setbacks, Lincoln did not want to do anything to jeopardize the ultimate goal of victory in the war. Even if he had wished to proclaim emancipation on a wider scale, such an act probably would not have been constitutionally legitimate for the presidency.
Lincoln's cabinet was nervous about the effect of issuing the proclamation, and it advised him to wait until the Union had won a major victory before releasing it. As a result, the president announced the preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862, five days after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam. In language that would be retained in the final version of the proclamation, this preliminary order declared that on January 1, 1863, all the slaves in the parts of the country still in rebellion "shall be … thenceforward and forever, free." It also pledged that "the executive government of the United States, including the military … will recognize and maintain the freedom" of ex-slaves. But this preliminary proclamation also contained language that was not included in the final document. For example, it recommended that slave owners who had remained loyal to the Union be compensated for the loss of their slaves.
The final version of the proclamation specified the regions still held by the Confederacy in which emancipation would apply: all parts of Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and parts of Louisiana and Virginia. It also asked that freed slaves "abstain from all violence" and announced that those "of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States." This last provision led to a significant practical effect of the proclamation: by 1865, over 190,000 African Americans had joined the U.S. armed services in the fight against the Confederacy.
News and copies of the proclamation quickly spread through the country, causing many people, especially African Americans, to celebrate. At one gathering, the African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass made a speech in which he pronounced the proclamation the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the servitude of the ages. In following years, many African Americans would continue to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the proclamation.
However, many abolitionists were disappointed with the limited nature of the proclamation. They called for complete and immediate emancipation throughout the entire country, and they criticized the proclamation as the product of military necessity rather than moral idealism.
Although the practical effects of the proclamation were quite limited, it did serve as an important symbol that the North now intended not only to preserve the Union but also to abolish the practice of slavery. For Lincoln, the proclamation marked an important step in his eventual support of complete emancipation. Later, he would propose that the Republican party include in its 1864 platform a plank calling for the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment, and he would sign the Thirteenth Amendment in early 1865.
The copy of the proclamation that Lincoln wrote by hand and signed on January 1, 1863, was destroyed in a fire in 1871. Early drafts and copies of the original, including the official government copy derived from Lincoln's own, are held at the National Archives, in Washington, D.C.
Legal Documents
Home > Library > Legal > Legal Documents Emancipation Proclamation
By the President of the United States of America
President Abraham Lincoln supported the U.S. Civil War to preserve the Union, not to end slavery. Though he was personally opposed to slavery, he had been elected on a platform that pledged the continuation of slavery in states where it already existed. Wartime pressures, however, drove Lincoln toward emancipation of the slaves. Military leaders argued that an enslaved labor force in the South allowed the Confederate states to place more soldiers on the front lines. By the summer of 1862, Lincoln had prepared an Emancipation Proclamation, but he did not want to issue it until Union armies had had greater success on the battlefield. He feared that otherwise the proclamation might be seen as a sign of weakness.
The Union army's victory at the Battle of Antietam encouraged the president to issue a preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862, that announced the abolition of slavery in areas occupied by the Confederacy effective January 1, 1863. The wording of the Emancipation Proclamation on that date made clear that slavery would still be tolerated in the border states and areas occupied by Union troops, so as not to jeopardize the war effort. Lincoln was uncertain that the Supreme Court would uphold the constitutionality of his action, so he lobbied Congress to adopt the Thirteenth Amendment, which totally abolished slavery.
Emancipation Proclamation
A Proclamation
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the president of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such states shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President:
Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
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Source: Statutes at Large, vol. 12 (1864), pp. 1268-1269.
History Dictionary
Home > Library > Reference > History Dictionary Emancipation Proclamation
A proclamation made by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that all slaves under the Confederacy were from then on “forever free.”
In itself, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves, because it applied only to rebellious areas that the federal government did not then control. It did not affect the four slave states that stayed in the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Yet when people say that Lincoln “freed the slaves,” they are referring to the Emancipation Proclamation.
Wikipedia
Home > Library > Reference > Wikipedia Emancipation Proclamation
Leland-Boker Authorized Edition, printed in June 1864 with a presidential signatureThe Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War, which declared the freedom of all slaves in the territory of the Confederate States of America that had not already returned to Union control. Issued in September 1862, the order became effective on January 1, 1863.
The proclamation made the end of slavery a central goal of the war (along with restoring the Union) and was highly controversial in the North. It was not a law passed by Congress but a presidential order empowered, Lincoln knew, by his position as "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy" under Article II, section 2 of the United States Constitution.
The proclamation did not free any slaves in the border states (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia), nor any southern territories already under Union control. It first affected only those slaves that had already escaped to the Union side, but as the Union armies conquered the Confederacy, thousands of slaves were freed each day until nearly all (estimated at 4 million) were free by July of 1865.
After the war there was concern that the proclamation, as a war measure, had not made the elimination of slavery permanent. Several states had prohibited slavery, but some slavery continued to exist in Kentucky and Delaware, until the entire institution was finally wiped out by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865.
Background
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation - Lincoln meets with his cabinet.A strict application of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 could have required the return of fugitive slaves to their owners. Initially this did not occur because some Union generals declared slaves in reoccupied areas were contraband of war. This was controversial because it could imply some recognition of the Confederacy as a separate nation under international law, a notion that Lincoln steadfastly denied; as a result, he never promoted the contraband designation. Some generals also declared the slaves to be free and were replaced when they refused to rescind such declarations. On March 13, 1862, Lincoln forbade all Union Army officers from returning fugitive slaves. On April 10, 1862, Congress declared that the federal government would compensate slave owners who freed their slaves. All slaves in the District of Columbia were freed in this way on April 16, 1862. On June 19, 1862, Congress prohibited slavery in United States territories, thus opposing the 1857 opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott Case that Congress was powerless to regulate slavery in the territories.
In January 1862, Thaddeus Stevens, the Republican leader in the House, called for total war against the rebellion, arguing that emancipation would ruin the rebel economy. In July 1862, Congress passed and Lincoln signed the "Second Confiscation Act." It liberated the slaves held by "rebels". Original Text. It provided:
“ SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort thereto, or shall engage in, or give aid and comfort to, any such existing rebellion or insurrection, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have; or by both of said punishments, at the discretion of the court.
...
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such person found or being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.
”
Lincoln himself had declared in peacetime he had no constitutional authority to free the slaves. The war gave him war powers. Emancipation was still a risky political act because of strong opposition among Copperhead Democrats, and the uncertain impact on loyal border states. As such, the proclamation was a military order issued by Lincoln in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, rather than the equivalent of a statute enacted by Congress, or a constitutional amendment. The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for the enrollment of freed slaves into the United States military. Nearly 200,000 blacks did join, most of them ex-slaves. This gave the North an additional manpower resource that the Confederacy would not emulate until the final months before its defeat.
A mass rally in Chicago on September 7, 1862, demanded an immediate and universal emancipation of slaves. A delegation headed by William W. Patton was sent to Washington and met the President at the White House on September 13.
Lincoln first discussed the proclamation with his cabinet in July 1862, but he felt that he needed a Union victory on the battlefield so it would not look like a desperate effort. After the Battle of Antietam, in which Union troops turned back a Confederate invasion of Maryland, he issued a preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862. The final proclamation was then issued in January of the following year.
The Emancipation Proclamation itself took effect only as the Union armies advanced into the Confederacy. Slaves in the border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia) were emancipated by separate state action. Secretary of State William H. Seward commented on this by remarking, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free." Had any seceding state rejoined the Union before January 1, 1863, it could have kept slavery, at least temporarily.
Although implicitly granted authority by Congress, Lincoln used his powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, "as a necessary war measure" as the basis of the proclamation. Abolitionists had long been urging Lincoln to free all slaves, though public opinion as a whole was against this [1]. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves itself. The 13th Amendment did that. The Proclamation only gave Lincoln the legal basis in order to free the slaves in the South.
Implementation
The Proclamation was issued in two parts. The first part, issued on September 22, 1862, was a preliminary announcement outlining the intent of the second part, which officially went into effect 100 days later on January 1, 1863, during the second year of the Civil War. It was Abraham Lincoln's declaration that all slaves would be permanently freed in all areas of the Confederacy that had not already returned to federal control by January 1863. The ten affected states were individually named in the second part. Not included were the Union slave states of Maryland, Delaware, Missouri and Kentucky. Specific exemptions were stated for all 48 counties that would soon become West Virginia, 7 other named counties of Virginia, and for New Orleans and 13 nearby named parishes already under Union control. That is, areas under Union control on January 1, 1863, were not affected.
Immediate impact
Booker T. Washington, as a boy of 9, remembered the day in early 1865: [Up from Slavery (1901) pp19-21]
“ As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom.... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.
”
Emancipation took place without violence by masters or ex-slaves. The proclamation represented a shift in the war objectives of the North—reuniting the nation would no longer become the sole outcome. It represented a major step toward the ultimate abolition of slavery in the United States and the formation of a "more perfect Union."
Emancipation from Freedmen's viewpoint; illustration from Harper's Weekly 1865Some slaves were freed immediately by the proclamation. Runaway slaves who made it to Union lines had been held by the Union Army as "contraband of war" in contraband camps; when the proclamation took effect they were told at midnight that they were free to leave. The Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia had been occupied by the Union Navy earlier in the war. The whites had fled to the mainland while the blacks stayed, and an early program of Reconstruction was set up for them. Naval officers read the proclamation to them and told them they were free.
In the military, the reaction to this proclamation varied widely, with some units coming to near mutiny in protest, and desertions were reported because of it. Other units were inspired with the adoption of a cause that seemed to them to ennoble their efforts, such that at least one unit took up the motto "For Union and Liberty".
Slaves had been part of the "engine of war" for the Confederacy. They produced and prepared food; sewed uniforms; repaired railways; worked on farms and in factories, shipping yards, and mines; built fortifications; and served as hospital workers and common laborers. News of the Proclamation spread rapidly by word of mouth, arousing hopes of freedom, creating general confusion, and encouraging many to escape.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address made indirect reference to the Proclamation and the ending of slavery as a war goal with the phrase "new birth of freedom".
Political impact
Lincoln plays the trump card—an 1862 Copperhead cartoon, note the horns.The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperhead Democrats who opposed the war and tolerated both secession and slavery. It became a campaign issue in the 1862 elections, in which the Democrats gained 28 seats in the House, as well as the governorship of New York. Many War Democrats who had supported Lincoln on the goal of Union balked at supporting emancipation as a war goal. The Proclamation solidified Lincoln's support among the rapidly growing abolitionist element of the Republican Party, and ensured they would not block his renomination in 1864. [2]
International impact
Abroad, as Lincoln hoped, the Proclamation turned foreign popular opinion in favor of the Union for its new commitment to end slavery. That shift ended any hope the Confederacy might have had of gaining official recognition, particularly with the United Kingdom. If Britain or France, both of which had abolished slavery, continued to support the Confederacy, it would seem as though they were supporting slavery. Prior to Lincoln's decree, Britain's actions had favored the Confederacy, especially in its construction of war ships such as the CSS Alabama and CSS Florida. As Henry Adams noted, "The Emancipation Proclamation has done more for us than all our former victories and all our diplomacy." Giuseppe Garibaldi hailed Lincoln as "the heir of the aspirations of John Brown." Alan Van Dyke, a representative for workers from Manchester, England, wrote to Lincoln saying, "We joyfully honor you for many decisive steps toward practically exemplifying your belief in the words of your great founders: 'All men are created free and equal.'" This eased tensions with Europe that had been caused by the North's determination to defeat the south at all costs, even if it meant upsetting Europe, as in the Trent Affair.
Postbellum
Near the end of the war, abolitionists were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be construed solely as a war act and thus no longer apply once fighting ended. They were also increasingly anxious to secure the freedom of all slaves, not just those freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Thus pressed, Lincoln staked a large part of his 1864 presidential campaign on a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery uniformly throughout the United States. Lincoln's campaign was bolstered by separate votes in both Maryland and Missouri to abolish slavery in those states. Maryland's new constitution abolishing slavery took effect in November 1864.
Winning re-election, Lincoln pressed the lame duck 38th Congress to pass the proposed amendment immediately rather than wait for the incoming 39th Congress to convene. In January 1865, Congress sent to the state legislatures for ratification what became the 13th Amendment, banning slavery in all U.S. states and territories. The amendment was ratified by the legislatures of enough states by December 6, 1865. There were about 40,000 slaves in Kentucky and 1,000 in Delaware who were liberated.
The proclamation was lauded in the years after Lincoln's death. The anniversary of its issue was celebrated as an black holiday for more than 50 years; the holiday of Juneteenth was created to honor it.[3] In 1913, the fiftieth anniversary of the Proclamation, there were particularly large celebrations. As the years went on and American life continued to be deeply unfair towards blacks, cynicism towards Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation increased.
Some 20th century black intellectuals, including W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin and Julius Lester, all described the proclamation as essentially worthless. Perhaps the strongest attack was Lerone Bennett's Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream, which claimed that Lincoln was a white supremacist who issued the Emancipation Proclamation in lieu of the real racial reforms that radical abolitionists were pushing for.
In his Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Allen C. Guelzo notes the historical profession's lack of substantial respect for the document since it has been the subject of few major scholarly studies. He argues that Lincoln was America's "last Enlightenment politician"[4] and as such was dedicated to removing slavery strictly within the bounds of law.
Text of the Emancipation Proclamation (second part)
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the 22nd day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomack, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
See also
Slavery Abolition Act - an act passed by the British parliament abolishing slavery in British colonies with compensation to the owners
Juneteenth - an African American holiday commemorating the freeing of slaves
War Governors' Conference - gave Lincoln the much needed political support to issue the Proclamation
Notes
^ Guelzo, Allen C. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, 2004, pg. 18
^ Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union: vol 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863 (1960)
^ Guelzo, p. 244.
^ Guelzo, p. 3.
References
Herman Belz, Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era (1978)
Christopher Ewan, "The Emancipation Proclamation and British Public Opinion" The Historian, Vol. 67, 2005
John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation (1963)
Guelzo, Allen C. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004)
Guelzo, Allen C. "How Abe Lincoln Lost the Black Vote: Lincoln and Emancipation in the African American Mind," Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association (2004) 25#1online edition
Harold Holzer, Edna Greene Medford, and Frank J. Williams. The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (2006)
Howard Jones, Abraham Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom: The Union and Slavery in the Diplomacy of the Civil War (1999)
Mitch Kachun, Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915 (2003)
McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: the Civil War and Reconstruction (2001 [3rd ed.]), esp. pp. 316-321.
Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union: vol 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863 (1960)
C. Peter Ripley, Roy E. Finkenbine, Michael F. Hembree, Donald Yacovone, Witness for Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slavery, and Emancipation (1993)
Silvana R. Siddali, From Property To Person: Slavery And The Confiscation Acts, 1861-1862 (2005)
John Syrett. Civil War Confiscation Acts: Failing to Reconstruct the South (2005)
Michael Vorenberg, Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (2001)
External links
Teaching resources about Slavery and Abolition on blackhistory4schools.com
Text and images of the Emancipation Proclamation from the National Archives
Emancipation Proclamation and related resources at the Library of Congress
Emancipation Proclamation - Original - Draft - Signed Broadside with Text
Scholarly article on rhetoric and the Emancipation Proclamation
Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Emancipation Proclamation
First Edition Emancipation Proclamationin 1862 Harper's Weekly
Chronology of Emancipation during the Civil War
"Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation"
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