{"id":70580,"date":"2025-02-06T01:45:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T01:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/lincolns-emancipation-proclamation-sorting-the-real-from-the-myth\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T01:45:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T01:45:57","slug":"lincolns-emancipation-proclamation-sorting-the-real-from-the-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=70580","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: Sorting the Real from the Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"


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One of the many letters Abraham Lincoln received after being elected president in November 1860 was from Alexander Stephens, a former congressional colleague of Lincoln and the future Vice-President of the Confederacy. He urged Lincoln to make a public statement regarding his intentions as president. It would be, Stephens wrote, \u201cthe word fitly spoken\u201d that might \u201csave our common country.\u201d Lincoln deliberated on the phrase and jotted down some thoughts on the essential purpose of the Constitution and the Union.<\/p>\n

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Abraham Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing right; hair parted on Lincoln\u2019s right side. Berger, Anthony. (1864) Library of Congress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Lincoln\u2019s notes are preserved in a document historians call the Fragment on the Constitution and Union<\/a>. Lincoln believed the \u201cword fitly spoken\u201d already existed. \u201cIt is the principle of \u201cliberty to all\u201d\u2014the principle that clears the path for all\u2014gives hope to all\u2014\u2026, enterprise and industry to all.\u201d The \u201cword fitly spoken\u201d is the promise of the Declaration of Independence, liberty and equality for all people. An \u201capple of gold in a frame of silver.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Lincoln was right, if \u201cliberty to all\u201d was \u201cthe word fitly spoken,\u201d why did he claim in his first inaugural address;<\/a> \u201cI have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.\u201d\u00a0Why not immediately declare liberty for the enslaved people in the South? Why wait so long to issue the Emancipation Proclamation<\/a>?<\/p>\n

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The answer, according to historian James Oakes, in his outstanding book Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1860-1865<\/a>,<\/em> is that emancipation was not \u201cthe singular act of a singular individual\u201d as many Americans assume. The actual emancipation story is far more complex.<\/p>\n

PEACETIME EMANCIPATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oakes argues for a broader understanding of the context of the Emancipation Proclamation. In the decades preceding the Civil War, anti-slavery editors, politicians, and abolitionists developed a legal and constitutional theory that guided their emancipation strategy.<\/p>\n

As early as 1851, Republicans like Senator Henry Wilson (MA) were articulating a peacetime emancipation theory that insisted Congress could legislate against slavery in territory under its domain. \u00a0\u201cWe shall arrest the extension of slavery\u201d in the territories, Wilson said. \u201c\u2026 and blot out slavery in the National Capital. We shall surround the slave States with a cordon of free States.\u201d According to this theory, slavery existed in the United States because some states protected \u201cthe peculiar institution\u201d with state legislation. Freedom, however, was national. The Constitution was not a pro-slavery document. Lincoln, congressional Republicans, and many abolitionists assumed this \u201ccordon of freedom\u201d would inevitably lead the slave states to abandon slavery on their accord.<\/p>\n

WARTIME EMANCIPATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

War changed everything. Military emancipation was constitutional as necessary to save the Union from a rebellion. \u00a0With southerners absent from Congress, Republicans quickly built the \u201ccordon of freedom\u201d with limited opposition from northern Democrats. Within three months of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, Republicans banned slavery in the western territories and Washington, DC, and blocked federal enforcement of the Constitution\u2019s fugitive slave clause.<\/a><\/p>\n

In August 1861, Lincoln signed the 1st Confiscation Act<\/a>, authorizing the military to reject enslavers efforts to reclaim their so-called \u201cproperty.\u201d Union officers and soldiers could not encourage enslaved people to flee bondage but were not required to return those who \u201cself-emancipated.\u201d Lincoln signed the 2nd Confiscation Act on July 17, 1862. Now Lincoln and Congress were committed to a military emancipation in addition to their \u201ccordon of freedom\u201d peacetime strategy.<\/p>\n

Lincoln quoted from the 2nd<\/sup> Confiscation Act<\/a> when he issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation<\/a> in September 1862. Under the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation military officers and men could entice slaves to escape on the promise of freedom. The disloyal states had one hundred days to reenter the Union, or their slaves would be \u201cforever free.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Final Emancipation Proclamation<\/a>, signed on January 1, 1863, quoted Sections 9 and 10 of the 2nd Confiscation Act verbatim. In his First Inaugural Address<\/a>, Lincoln acknowledged that a president did not have \u201cthe power to interfere with slavery\u201d where it existed. But he did not say that a president lacked that power during a civil insurrection. With the onset of war and the authorization of Congress, the commander-in-chief exercised that power.<\/p>\n

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Abraham Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address as President of the United States, Washington, D.C. Gardner, Alexander. (1865) Library of Congress. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I wish I could hear a recording of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s 2nd Inaugural Address<\/a>. When he said, \u201cthat all knew\u201d slavery was \u201csomehow\u201d the cause of the war did he emphasize \u201csomehow\u201d? He said neither side expected \u201cthe cause of the conflict might cease\u201d before the war ended. Yet, he knew his administration implemented peacetime emancipation upon assuming office and military emancipation after the war started. And he knew their plan succeeded. It is difficult to believe he was surprised at the outcome.<\/p>\n

For more classroom-ready Lincoln documents, please see our CDC volume, Abraham Lincoln<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, available for purchase or download from our bookstore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ray Tyler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ray Tyler was the 2014 James Madison Fellow for South Carolina and a 2016 graduate of Ashland University\u2019s\u00a0Masters Program in American History and Government. Ray is a former Teacher Program Manager for TAH and a frequent contributor to our blog.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n