Emancipation Proclamation



Display with Lincoln and his cabinet working on the Emancipation Proclamation


On Saturday August 11th, we traveled to Springfield, after finishing our shift in the Temple.  The next day we went to the Lincoln Museum in the afternoon.  There were many very good displays and shows that helped describe the life of Abraham Lincoln.  We really enjoyed the display on the emancipation proclamation.  There was a live actor there that spoke about what the proclamation was and what it was not.  Most people believe that the proclamation freed the slaves.  In fact, the proclamation was a wonderfully crafted document that eventually did free the slaves via the 13th amendment.  

 The problem was that slavery was put into the original Constitution in order to get it ratified by the Southern states.  Only an amendment to the Constitution could fix that problem.  President Lincoln had no power to change the Constitution, but he did have power to confiscate property in time of war.  The Dread-Scott decision by the supreme court in 1857, declared that slaves were property.  Therefore; Lincoln issued the proclamation to confiscate the slaves as property and then say they were free.  Of course the South did not follow Lincolns proclamation but the proclamation caused many more slaves to escape to slave-free states as now they would not be sent back. The law that Lincoln used to make the proclamation also stated that when the war ended, the property that was confiscated during the war must be returned to their rightful owners. 

Lincoln had spent two years in congress and well understood how difficult it would be to pass an amendment to the Constitution.  In the first 70 years since the Constitution was ratified, there had only been two amendments ratified.  The emancipation proclamation put tremendous pressure on the congress when it became apparent that the North would win the war.  This was because upon victory if the congress did not act, all the slaves would have to be returned to their former owners and congress would take the blame for that horrendous act.  Thus, by January 1865 both the Senate and Congress passed the 13th amendment.   Eighteen states ratified the amendment the next month and three more before Lincoln was assassinated.  Nine more states ratified the amendment before the end of the year making the amendment part of the Constitution.

President Lincoln was brilliant with his timing and drafting of this document that created the 13th amendment.  This bold action ended slavery in the United States forever as well as help win the war to keep the nation unified.  I believe that he was guided by divine inspiration to accomplish such a difficult task. 

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