Emancipation
Emancipation Proclamation
What was it?
What were its
consequences?
Was it a revolutionary
document?
Did it raise the Civil
War to a higher moral plane?
Was it a radical
departure from what Lincoln had thought before?
Were “saving the Union”
and ending slavery unrelated?
Emancipation
Why did Lincoln issue the
proclamation?
Pressure from radicals?
Need for more troops?
Deteriorating
circumstances of the war?
If the Emancipation
Proclamation raised the war to a higher moral plane
Lincoln had to be
educated
Lincoln had to be
pressured
Emancipation
Therefore one must assume
that Lincoln
Lacked vision
Moral will
Was he a “typical”
politician acting from selfish motivation?
Was he a reluctant
emancipator
Was he fulfilling a
vision?
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Another option
Lincoln sought to change
the prevailing ideas about slavery
Lincoln sought to remain
faithful to the ideal of government by consent of the governed
Examine Lincoln’s track
record on slavery.
Emancipation
1858
Lincoln/Douglas
debates
Other
speeches in Illinois (Chicago)
I am
tolerably well acquainted with the history of the country, and I know that it
has endured eighty-two years, half slave and half free. I believe—and
that is what I meant to allude to there—I believe it has endured,
because during all that time, until the introduction of the Nebraska bill, the
public mind did rest all the time in the belief that slavery was in course of
ultimate extinction
Why
did Lincoln say this?
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Northwest Ordinance
End of African slave
trade within 20 years
“What were they but a
clear indication that the framers of the Constitution intended and expected the
ultimate extinction of that institution?”
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What
disabused Lincoln of the belief that slavery would cease?
Kansas-Nebraska
Dred
Scott
I have
always hated slavery, I think, as much as any Abolitionist…”
“I think
the opponents of slavery will resist the farther spread of it, and place it
where the public mind shall rest with the belief that it is in course of
ultimate extinction…”
Emancipation
However,
Lincoln did not advocate interfering with slavery where it existed
That
would be against the law
What of
Dred Scott?
“If
I were in Congress, and a vote should come up on a question whether slavery
should be prohibited in a new Territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I
would vote that it should.”
‘Somebody
has to reverse that decision, since it is made, and we mean to reverse it, and
we mean to do it peaceably.’
Emancipation
Republican
Party Platform 1861
Maintain
principles of Declaration of Independence
Emphasized
principle of equality
Recognition
of the federal character of Constitution…but
Territories
The
“normal condition of all territory of the United States is freedom.”
No
person or entity had the authority to give legal existence to slavery in any
territory
Emancipation
Republican platform 1861
Slave states were not in
accord with the “normal condition” of the United States
Party pledged to create a
“normal condition” throughout the Union within the bounds of the Constitution
In these examples
Republican Party restating Lincoln’s
stand on the slavery issue
Emancipation
In a nutshell
Constitution a compromise
with slavery in order to achieve consent
Did not mean that all or
even most of the founders support continued slavery
Thomas Jefferson saw the
incompatibility between Declaration of Independence and slavery
Founders aware of the
dichotomy
Emancipation
gThey
meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow
as fast as circumstances would permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim
for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all;
constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly
attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and
deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all
peoples of all colors everywhere.”
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Therefore,
according to Lincoln
Slavery
was not supposed to have endured
It
was supposed to be localized
It
was supposed to have died a natural death
The
instrument by which the principles of the Declaration were to be fulfilled
Constitution
Intimately
bound to the Declaration
“If
the principle of equality, which stands as the heart of the American political
order, is true and right, then slavery is both wrong and fundamentally
unconstitutional.” D. Livingstone
Emancipation
Border states
Importance to Lincoln is
vital
Refuses to do anything
that will alienate them
When urged to
emancipate July 1861
“I would do it if I were
not afraid that half the officers would fling down their arms and three more
states would rise.”
Emancipation
Lincoln
tried to get borders states to consent to gradual emancipation
March 1861
Joint
resolution
Approving
compensation for any state adapting gradual emancipation
Efforts
in March, May, July 1861
Efforts
jeopardized by political Generals
Hunter
(Florida, Georgia, North Carolina))
Fremont
(Missouri)
Butler
(Virginia)
Emancipation
Lincoln
consistently refused by border states
“…confine
yourself to your Constitutional authority.”
“…conduct
this war solely for the purpose of restoring the Constitution to its
legitimate authority; concede to each
state and its loyal citizens their just rights, and we are wedded to you by
indissoluble ties.“
Lincoln
reassured them that he would not interfere with state’s rights or dismantle slavery-he
had not the authority to do so
Emancipation
“It
would do no good to go faster than the country would follow.”
Abolitionists
House
Senate
Ambassadors
Vienna
European
recognition of the Confederacy could be avoided only by a significant
battlefield victory for the Union, the capture of a southern port and the
release of southern cotton to European factories, or announcement of a policy
to emancipate the slaves.
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Switzerland
a letter from a Swiss
statesman who warned that emancipation of slaves in the rebel states would be
viewed as an invitation for slave insurrections elsewhere. That could result in
European intervention, because interference with an enemy's slaves had long
been considered to be beyond the bounds of "civilized warfare.“
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Despite
pressures Lincoln had to wait
Country
wasn’t ready yet
Needed
time to understand
The
proper moment had not yet presented itself
Sec
State Seward
A
significant military achievement
22 July
1862
Draft
Proclamation to Congress
Lincoln
presented this as a change in tactics necessary to win the war
Emancipation
"Things
have gone from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our
rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played
our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game.“
Therefore,
within his authority as Commander-in-Chief Lincoln was able to proclaim a very
specific end to slavery
Emancipation
"I,
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and
Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim. ... "
Lincoln
declared free all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal
government
It
did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on the Union side; nor did it
affect slaves in southern areas already under Union control
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Criticism
British: Lincoln freed
slaves where he had no power
Reaction missed the key
point
Lincoln insisted all along under the Constitution neither the president
nor Congress had the authority to touch the institution of slavery in the
states.
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Sec
Treasury Salmon P. Chase thought Proclamation not radical enough
Virginia
Louisiana
Lincoln
to Salmon Chase 2 Sept ’63
No
military necessity to do so.
It was
only on the basis of military necessity that that "property" could be
taken.
"If
I take the next step,must I not do so, without the argument of military necessity,
and so, without any argument, except the one that I think the measure
politically expedient, and morally right? Would I not thus give up all footing
upon constitution or law? Would I not thus be in the boundless field of
absolutism?“
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No mistake; the
Proclamation=beginning of the end of slavery
It would not survive the
war
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Consequences
Loss
to Democrats in midterm elections
Even
Illinois elected a Democratic majority
Border
states stayed in the Union
No large
scale trouble in the Army
Slave
desertions increased
Maryland
abolished slavery in 1864
Missouri
in 1865
Ended
possibility of European recognition of the South
Proclamation
"would produce by the end of the war a situation in which the country
would be compelled to decide on the principle of slavery, and Lincoln had at
least done his part in preparing men to face that issue“ Lord Charnwood
Emancipation
Proclamation
was not
Cynical
political expedience
Surrender
to pressure
Abolition
Meaningless
It was
Lincoln’s
plan to bring the American people to the realization of the meaning of the
founding documents in action.