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Limitations Of The Emancipation Proclamation Essay, Research Paper

Limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,

1863 declaring that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states

shall be free. However, despite this expansive wording, the Proclamation was

limited in many ways. It applied only to states that withdrew from the Union,

leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also specifically

excluded parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control.

Most importantly, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.

In the early life of Lincoln, he formed a strong opinion on the issue of

slavery. Slavery, for Lincoln, violated everything for which he stood. Lincoln

was born into a poor pioneer family, and worked hard on the farm. He knew what

it was like to till soil and raise crops. Through his hard work and

determination, Lincoln was able to become a successful lawyer. "Lincoln

believed that all Americans should have the opportunity to enhance their lives

as he had enhanced his own" (Tackach 30). Lincoln felt slavery violated the

principle in the Declaration of Independence that stated "all men are

created equal"(Tackach 31).

The Emancipation of January 1, 1863, contained no indictment of slavery, but

simply based emancipation on "military necessity". However, the

Federal Constitution still held the slaves as property, except in Missouri and

Maryland, two states which had legalized emancipation (Sandburg 643). Lincoln is

often known as the "Great Emancipator", and was loved for

"freeing the slaves".(Donald 154) The purpose for issuing the

proclamation is not always fully understood. "Although Lincoln’s judgement

as well as timing were in the long run fully vindicated, it is perhaps easier to

understand the Proclamation in the terms in which Lincoln himself presented

it-as a war measure, issued on the narrow grounds of military necessity, and

designed to hurt the enemy both at home and abroad" (Canby 291).

In the beginning, the Civil War was not being fought over the issue of

slavery, but it war was being fought primarily to save the Union (Tackach 43).

Lincoln accurately hypothesized that any freeing of slaves elsewhere would hurt

the border states, and the Union could not afford to lose any more states than

it had already lost. Lincoln once said

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 save it by

freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do

that(Canby 292).

As he wrote these words to Horace Greeley, Lincoln had already knew he was

going to issue the Emancipation Proclamation at the first favorable opportunity.

Part of the "military necessity" justification for the proclamation

was the opinion that freed blacks could not be used in the armed forces. In

aiding to restore the Confederate states and their citizens to the Union,

Lincoln was explicit and took his authority in action (Phillips 92). As the war

entered its second year, the abolitionists in Congress began pressing the

president to free the slaves. Freeing the slaves would cause problems because it

would cripple the South’s ability to wage war. This would occur because the

labor by slaves would have to be performed by men who might otherwise enlist in

the Confederate army (Tackach 43).

As predicted, the South condemned Lincoln for the Emancipation Proclamation.

"To pro-slavery Southerners, Lincoln was no better than John Brown, who

had, in 1859, attempted to ignite a bloody war to free the South’s

slaves—Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation steeled the South’s resolve to win

the Civil War. To lose the war would mean an end to Southern slavery and the

ruination of the South’s economy." (Tackach 46).

In some ways, Lincoln had changed the purpose of the Civil War. It went from

a war to restore the Union to a war to end American slavery (Sandburg 331).

The Emancipation Proclamation itself was no ringing call for an all-out

attack on slavery. It did not lay hands on slaves in the Confederacy and set any

of them free immediately. But it did, slowly but surely, take hold of the minds

of men and inspire them to fight for the freedom of millions of men, women, and

children in bondage. The proclamation was a promise for the future?a promise

that changed the war for the Union into a fight for freedom.(Latham 5)

The many limitations and fine points in the proclamation provided fuel for

Lincoln?s critics during the war and right into present day, but while he

lived, those critics were mostly conservatives that were not going to admire any

policy that led to freeing black people. Likewise, in Lincoln?s own day most

political liberals?and, perhaps more important, most black people themselves?praised

the proclamation. They noticed that despite the legalistic language, the

document carried ?historic content.? And the proclamation was nothing if not

politically courageous. Lincoln remarked about the non-existent effects of the

proclamation, ?The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath,

but breath alone kills no rebels.?(Cuomo 241)

The cut-and-dried language of the proclamation has, however, caused some

people,

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