Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation was a declaration by United States President Abraham Lincoln announcing that all slaves in Confederate territory still in rebellion were freed. The Proclamation exempted slaveholding border states which had not seceded from the Union, and those states already under Union control. While it immediately freed only a small number of slaves (see below), it did authorize their freedom as Union forces took control of former Confederate territory — and it set the stage for slavery's ultimate abolition in the United States.

Adoption

However, Lincoln believed he had no constitutional authority to free the slaves except in those states where it was deemed a military necessity in order to suppress the rebellion. In addition, freeing slaves was still a risky political act, since there were still slave states loyal to the Union and the initial war aims were centered on preserving the Union rather than freeing slaves. 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. There is also some argument that the Emancipation Proclamation itself was unconstitutional, as the Commander-in-Chief power extends to directing the activities of the armed forces, not making new laws (see Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952) (holding that the president lacked power as commander-in-chief to seize steel mills for Korean War effort). The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for the admittance of freed slaves into the (previously segregated) United States military, an unusual opportunity taken advantage of by nearly 200,000 black men, many of them former slaves. This gave the North an additional manpower resource that the South would not emulate until the final days before its defeat.

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Lincoln first discussed the proclamation with his cabinet in July 1862, but because of the political implications of this act (including the presence of slave states within the Union), he felt that he needed a Union victory in the Civil War before he could issue it. 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.

Related Topics:
1862 - Battle of Antietam - Confederate - September 22

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