Emancipation Proclamation: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|1862 executiveExecutive order by U.S.US President Abraham Lincoln freeing slaves in the South}}

| documentcaption = The five-page original document, held in the [[National Archives Building]] – until 1936 it had been bound with other proclamations in a large volume held by the [[United States Department of State|Department of State]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/|title=Featured Document: The Emancipation Proclamation|date=n.d.}}</ref>

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/transcript_preliminary_emancipation.html Text of Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation]</ref> Its third paragraph readsbegins:

{{quote|That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any [[U.S. state|State]] or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the [[Federal government of the United States|executive government]] of the United States, including the [[United States Armed Forces|military]] and [[United States Navy|naval]] authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.}}

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html Text of Emancipation Proclamation]</ref> After quoting from the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, itIt stated:

[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Abraham Lincoln - overall.jpg|thumb|upright|Abraham Lincoln]]

Lincoln understood that the federal government's power to end slavery in peacetime was limited by the Constitution, which, before 1865, committed the issue to individual states.<ref name="Mackubin">{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/books/owens200403251139.asp |title=The Liberator |first=Thomas Owens |last=Mackubin |date=March 25, 2004 |work=National Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216125903/http://old.nationalreview.com/books/owens200403251139.asp |archive-date=February 16, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the Civil War, however, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation under his authority as "[[Powers of the President of the United States#Commander-in-Chief|Commander in Chief]] of the Army and Navy" under [[U.S. Const. Art. II, §2|Article II, section 2]] of the United States Constitution.<ref>Crowther, p. 651</ref> As such, in the Emancipation Proclamation he claimed to have the authority to free persons held as slaves in those states that were in rebellion "as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion". In the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln alsosaid cited"attention theis [[Confiscationhereby called" to two 1862 statutes, namely "An Act to Make an Additional Article of 1861]]War" and the [[Confiscation Act of 1862]], passedbut byhe Congressdidn't asmention sourcesany forstatute in the Final Emancipation Proclamation and, in any event, the source of his authority into issue the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, butand hethe didFinal notEmancipation mentionProclamation thesewas his "joint capacity as President and Commander-in-Chief".<ref>Fabrikant, theRobert, "Emancipation and the Proclamation: itselfOf Contrabands, Congress, and Lincoln". He''Howard Law Journal'', vol. 49, no. 2 (2006), p. 369.</ref> Lincoln therefore did not have such authority over the four border [[Slave and free states|slave-holding states]] that were not in rebellion—[[Missouri]], [[Kentucky]], [[Maryland]] and [[Delaware]]—so those states were not named in the Proclamation.{{refn|The fourth paragraph of the proclamation explains that Lincoln issued it "by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html |title= The Emancipation Proclamation |date= January 1, 1863 |type= transcription |publisher= United States National Archives }}</ref>}} The fifth border jurisdiction, [[West Virginia]], where slavery remained legal but was in the process of being abolished, was, in January 1863, still part of the legally recognized [[Restored Government of Virginia|"reorganized" state of Virginia]], based in [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]], which was in the Union (as opposed to the Confederate state of Virginia, based in [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]]).

The Emancipation Proclamation has been ridiculed, notably by [[Richard Hofstadter]], who wrote that it "had all the moral grandeur of a [[bill of lading]]" and "declared free all slaves ... precisely where its effect could not reach".<ref>Hofstadter, Richard, "Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth," in ''[[The American Political Tradition|The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It]]'' (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1948). [https://archive.org/details/americanpolitica00hofs online]. Vintage Books edition, March 1989, p. 169.</ref><ref>[[Allen C. Guelzo]] quotes [[Karl Marx]]'s statement that the proclamation sounds like [https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1062&context=cwfac "ordinary summonses sent by one lawyer to another on the opposing side".]</ref> Disagreeing with Hofstadter, [[William W. Freehling]] wrote that Lincoln's asserting his power as Commander-in-Chief to issue the proclamation "reads not like an entrepreneur's bill for past services but like a warrior's brandishing of a new weapon".<ref>Freehling, William W., ''The South vs. The South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War''. Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 118.</ref>

Although the Emancipation Proclamation hadresulted freedin mostthe slavesgradual asfreeing aof warmost measureslaves, it haddid not mademake slavery illegal. Of the states that were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation, Maryland,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc2600/sc2685/html/conv1864.html |title=Archives of Maryland Historical List: Constitutional Convention, 1864 |date=November 1, 1864 |access-date=November 3, 2011 |archive-date=February 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220000817/http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc2600/sc2685/html/conv1864.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Missouri,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/event/missouri-abolishes-slavery |title=Missouri abolishes slavery |date=January 11, 1865 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425132518/http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/event/missouri-abolishes-slavery |archive-date=April 25, 2012 }}</ref> Tennessee,<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1865/01/15/news/tennessee-state-convention-slavery-declared-forever-abolished-parson-brownlow.html |title=Tennessee State Convention: Slavery Declared Forever Abolished |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 14, 1865}}</ref> and West Virginia<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/thisdayinwvhistory/february.html|title=On This Day in West Virginia History – February|website=www.wvculture.org}}</ref> prohibited slavery before the war ended. In 1863, President Lincoln proposed a moderate plan for the Reconstruction of the captured Confederate State of Louisiana.<ref>Stauffer (2008), ''Giants'', p. 279</ref> Only 10 percent of the state's electorate had to take the loyalty oath. The state was also required to accept the Emancipation Proclamation and abolish slavery in its new constitution. By December 1864, the Lincoln plan abolishing slavery had been enacted not only in Louisiana, but also in Arkansas and Tennessee.<ref name="Peterson 1995 pp. 38–41">Peterson (1995), ''Lincoln in American Memory'', pp. 38–41</ref><ref name="McCarthy 1901 p. 76">McCarthy (1901), ''Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction'', p. 76</ref> In Kentucky, Union Army commanders relied on the proclamation's offer of freedom to slaves who enrolled in the Army and provided freedom for an enrollee's entire family; for this and other reasons, the number of slaves in the state fell by more than 70 percent during the war.<ref name=Harrison>{{Cite journal |last=Harrison |first=Lowell H. |year=1983 |title=Slavery in Kentucky: A Civil War Casualty |journal=The Kentucky Review |edition=Fall |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=38–40}}</ref> However, in Delaware<ref>{{cite web|url=http://slavenorth.com/delaware.htm|title=Slavery in Delaware|website=slavenorth.com}}</ref> and Kentucky,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FdTIIEZ1k2QC&q=kentucky+abolishes+slavery&pg=PA174 |title=A new history of Kentucky |author=Lowell Hayes Harrison and James C. Klotter |year=1997 |page=180|publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0813126215 }} In 1866, Kentucky refused to ratify the 13th Amendment. It did ratify it in 1976.</ref> slavery continued to be legal until December 18, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment went into effect.

Image:Emancipation proclamation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''[[First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln]]'' by [[Francis Bicknell Carpenter]] (1864) <small>''({{Clickable image—use|use cursor to identify.)''</small>}}|alt=A dark-haired, bearded, middle-aged man holding documents is seated among seven other men.]]

</ref> It also rejected the notion of [[popular sovereignty]] that had been advanced by [[Stephen A. Douglas]] as a solution to the slavery controversy, while completing the effort first legislatively proposed by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in 1784 to confine slavery within the borders of existing states.<ref>Montgomery, David. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=A24AAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22June+19%2C+1862%22+slavery+Lincoln&pg=PA428 The studentStudent's American historyHistory]'', pagep. 428 (Ginn & Co. 1897).

On August 6, 1861, the [[Confiscation Act of 1861|First Confiscation Act]] freed the slaves who were employed "against the Government and lawful authority of the United States."<ref>[http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact1.htm First Confiscation Act]</ref> On July 17, 1862, the [[Confiscation Act of 1862|Second Confiscation Act]] freed the slaves "within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by forces of the United States."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/conact2.htm |title=The Second Confiscation Act, July 17, 1862 |publisher=History.umd.edu |access-date=May 29, 2011 |archive-date=August 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080806144911/http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/conact2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Second Confiscation Act, unlike the First Confiscation Act, explicitly provided that all slaves covered by it would be permanently freed, stating in section 10 that "all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such person found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact2.htm|title=The Second Confiscation Act, July 17, 1862|website=www.freedmen.umd.edu}}</ref> However, Lincoln's position continued to be that, although Congress lacked the power to free the slaves in rebel-held states, he, as commander in chief, could do so if he deemed it a proper military measure.<ref>Donald, David. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fuTY3mxs9awC&q=Second+Confiscation+Act Lincoln]'', p. 365 (Simon and Schuster, 1996)</ref> By this time, in the summer of 1862, Lincoln had drafted the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued on September 22, 1862. It declared that, on January 1, 1863, he would free the slaves in states still in rebellion.<ref name=Dear/> Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation cited both Confiscations Acts as sources for his authority to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, although neither of these acts would be mentioned in the text of the Emancipation Proclamation itself.

Lincoln scholar [[Harold Holzer]] wrote about Lincoln's letter: "Unknown to Greeley, Lincoln composed this after he had already drafted a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which he had determined to issue after the next Union military victory. Therefore, this letter, was in truth, an attempt to position the impending announcement in terms of saving the Union, not freeing slaves as a humanitarian gesture. It was one of Lincoln's most skillful public relations efforts, even if it has cast longstanding doubt on his sincerity as a liberator."<ref name=Dear>{{cite book |first=Harold |last=Holzer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05ggngEACAAJ |title=Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |date=2006 |page=162 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-8093-2686-0}}</ref> Historian [[Richard Striner]] argues that "for years" Lincoln's letter has been misread as "Lincoln only wanted to save the Union."<ref name="Striner">{{cite book |last=Striner |first=Richard |title=Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/fatherabrahamlin0000stri/page/176 176] |isbn=978-0-19-518306-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/fatherabrahamlin0000stri/page/176}}</ref> However, within the context of Lincoln's entire career and pronouncements on slavery this interpretation is wrong, according to Striner. Rather, Lincoln was softening the strong Northern white supremacist opposition to his imminent emancipation by tying it to the cause of the Union. This opposition would fight for the Union but not to end slavery, so Lincoln gave them the means and motivation to do both, at the same time.<ref name="Striner"/> In effect, then, Lincoln may have already chosen the third option he mentioned to Greeley: "freeing some and leaving others alone"; that is, freeing slaves in the states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, but leaving enslaved those in the [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]] and Union-occupied areas.

Conflicting advice, as to freewhether all slaves, or notto free themthe at all,slaves was presented to Lincoln in public and private. [[Thomas Nast]], a cartoon artist during the Civil War and the late 1800s considered "Father of the American Cartoon", composed many works, including a two-sided spread that showed the transition from slavery into civilization after President Lincoln signed the Proclamation. Nast believed in equal opportunity and equality for all people, including enslaved Africans or free blacks. A mass rally in Chicago on September 7, 1862, demanded immediate and universal emancipation of slaves. A delegation headed by [[William W. Patton]] met the president at the [[White House]] on September 13. Lincoln had declared in peacetime that he had no constitutional authority to free the slaves. Even used as a war power, emancipation was a risky political act. Public opinion as a whole was against it.<ref>{{harvnb|Guelzo|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MOFHPTQYqzgC&pg=PA18 18]}}</ref> There would be strong opposition among [[Copperhead (politics)|Copperhead]] Democrats and an uncertain reaction from loyal border states. Delaware and Maryland already had a high percentage of free blacks: 91.2% and 49.7%, respectively, in 1860.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Kolchin |title=American Slavery: 1619–1877 |location=New York |publisher=Hill and Wang |date=1994 |page=82 |isbn=978-0-8090-1554-2}}</ref>

Lincoln first discussed the proclamation with his cabinet in July 1862. He drafted his "preliminary proclamation" and read it to Secretary of State [[William Seward]], and Secretary of the Navy [[Gideon Welles]], on July 13. Seward and Welles were at first speechless, then Seward referred to possible anarchy throughout the South and resulting foreign intervention; Welles apparently said nothing. On July 22, Lincoln presented it to his entire cabinet as something he had determined to do and he asked their opinion on wording.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/almintr.html | title=Emancipation Proclamation | work=Lincoln Papers | publisher=Library of Congress and Knox College | year=2002 | access-date=June 28, 2013}}</ref> Although Secretary of War Edwin Stanton supported it, Seward advised Lincoln to issue the proclamation after a major Union victory, or else it would appear as if the Union was giving "its last shriek of retreat".<ref>{{cite book|last=Goodwin|first=Doris Kearns|title=Team of Rivals|year=2005|publisher=Blithedale Productions|location=New York}}</ref> Walter Stahr, however, writes, "There are contemporary sources, however, that suggest others were involved in the decision to delay", and Stahr quotes them.<ref>Stahr, Walter, ''Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary'', New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017, p. 226.</ref>

In September 1862, the [[Battle of Antietam]] gave Lincoln the victory he needed to issue the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. In the battle, though the Union suffered heavier losses than the Confederates and [[General McClellan]] allowed the escape of [[Robert E. Lee]]'s retreating troops, Union forces turned back a Confederate invasion of Maryland, eliminating more than a quarter of Lee's army in the process. This marked a significant turning point in the Civil War.

[[File:Emancipation Proclamation - LOC 04067 - restoration1.jpg|thumb|upright|1864 reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division|left]]

[[Gideon Welles]], ''Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson'' (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911), 1:143, reported that Lincoln made a covenant with God that if God would change the tide of the war, Lincoln would change his policy toward slavery. See also Nicolas Parrillo, "Lincoln's Calvinist Transformation: Emancipation and War", ''Civil War History'' (September 1, 2000).</ref> Lincoln had first shown an early draft of the proclamation to Vice President [[Hannibal Hamlin]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bangorinfo.com/Focus/focus_hannibal_hamlin.html |title=Bangor in Focus: Hannibal Hamlin |publisher=Bangorinfo.com |date= n.d.|access-date=May 29, 2011}}</ref> an ardent abolitionist, who was more often kept in the dark on presidential decisions. TheLincoln issued the final proclamation, wasas issuedhe had promised in the preliminary proclamation, on January 1, 1863. Although implicitly granted authority by Congress, Lincoln used his powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to issue the proclamation "as a necessary war measure." Therefore, it was not the equivalent of a statute enacted by Congress or a constitutional amendment, because Lincoln or a subsequent president could revoke it. One week after issuing the final Proclamation, Lincoln wrote to Major General [[John McClernand]]: "After the commencement of hostilities I struggled nearly a year and a half to get along without touching the 'institution'; and when finally I conditionally determined to touch it, I gave a hundred days fair notice of my purpose, to all the States and people, within which time they could have turned it wholly aside, by simply again becoming good citizens of the United States. They chose to disregard it, and I made the peremptory proclamation on what appeared to me to be a military necessity. And being made, it must stand". Lincoln continued, however, that the states included in the proclamation could "adopt systems of apprenticeship for the colored people, conforming substantially to the most approved plans of gradual emancipation; and ... they may be nearly as well off, in this respect, as if the present trouble had not occurred". He concluded by asking McClernand not to "make this letter public".<ref> [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln6/1:84.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext;q1=broken+eggs "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]" edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume 6, pp. 48–49.</ref><ref>Cohen, Henry, [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e83d709f319913599d9eff/t/65654294056d981e17a815ec/1701135003723/2023+%2354+LF+Fall+Bulletin++%E2%80%93+WEB.pdf "Was Lincoln Disingenuous in His Greeley Letter?"], ''The Lincoln Forum Bulletin'', Issue 54, Fall 2023, p. 9.</ref>

[[File:Men of Color Civil War Recruitment Broadside 1863.png|thumb|upright|A [[Broadside (printing)|printed broadside]] recruiting men of color to enlist in the U.S. military after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 ([[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]).]]

Runaway slaves who had escaped to Union lines had previously been held by the Union Army as "contraband of war" under the [[Confiscation Acts]]; when the proclamation took effect, they were told at midnight that they were free to leave. The [[Sea Islands]] off the coast of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] had been occupied by the Union Navy earlier in the war. The whites had fled to the mainland while the blacks stayed. An early program of [[Reconstruction Era of the United States|Reconstruction]] was set up for the former slaves, including schools and training. Naval officers read the proclamation and told them they were free.<ref name=Klingaman/>

Slaves had been part of the "engine of war" for the Confederacy. They produced and prepared food; sewed uniforms; repaired railways; worked on farms and in factories, shipping yards, and mines; built fortifications; and served as hospital workers and common laborers. News of the Proclamation spread rapidly by word of mouth, arousing hopes of freedom, creating general confusion, and encouraging thousands to escape to Union lines.<ref>{{cite book|last=Goodheart|first=Adam|title=1861: The Civil War Awakening|year=2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|location=New York}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2020}} George Washington Albright, a teenage slave in [[Mississippi]], recalled that like many of his fellow slaves, his father escaped to join Union forces. According to Albright, plantation owners tried to keep news of the Proclamation from slaves, but newsthey learned of it came through the "grapevine". The young slave became a "runner" for an informal group they called the ''4Ls'' ("Lincoln's Legal Loyal League") bringing news of the proclamation to secret slave meetings at plantations throughout the region.<ref>Jenkins, Sally, and [[John Stauffer (professor)|Stauffer, John]]. ''The State of Jones''. New York: Anchor Books edition/Random House, c. 2009 (2010). {{ISBN|978-0-7679-2946-2}}, p. 42.</ref>

Confederate general [[Robert E. Lee]] saw the Emancipation Proclamation as a way for the Union to increase the number of soldiers it could place on the field, making it imperative for the Confederacy to increase its own numbers. Writing on the matter after the sack of [[Fredericksburg, Virginia|Fredericksburg]], Lee wrote, "In view of the vast increase of the forces of the enemy, of the savage and brutal policy he has proclaimed, which leaves us no alternative but success or degradation worse than death, if we would save the honor of our families from pollution [and] our social system from destruction, let every effort be made, every means be employed, to fill and maintain the ranks of our armies, until God in his mercy shall bless us with the establishment of our independence."<ref>[http://cwmemory.com/2011/11/18/robert-e-lee-on-robert-h-milroy-or-emancipation/ "Robert E. Lee on Robert H. Milroy or Emancipation," ''civil war memory: The Online Home of Kevin M. Levin'', November 18, 2011]</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Civil War: A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian|author=Shelby Foote|volume=2|year=1963|publisher=Random House}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

The Emancipation Proclamation marked a significant turning point in the war as it made the goal of the North not only preserving the Union, but also freeing the slaves.<ref>{{cite web |title=Emancipation Proclamation (1863) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/emancipation-proclamation |website=National Archives|publisher=National Archives |access-date=13 February 2024|date=May 10, 2022}}</ref> The Proclamation also rallied support from abolitionists and Europeans, while encouraging enslaved individuals to escape to the North. This weakened the South's labor force while bolstering the North's ranks. <ref>{{cite web |title=Immediate Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation |url=https://www.portal.hsp.org/unit-plan-items/unit-plan-34 |website=Historical Society of Pennsylvania |publisher=Historical Society of Pennsylvania |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref>

The Proclamation was immediately denounced by [[Copperheads (politics)|Copperhead Democrats]], who opposed the war and advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery. [[Horatio Seymour]], while running for governor of New York, cast the Emancipation Proclamation as a call for slaves to commit extreme acts of violence on all white southerners, saying it was "a proposal for the butchery of women and children, for scenes of lust and rapine, and of arson and murder, which would invoke the interference of civilized Europe".<ref name="Weber">{{cite book |last=Weber |first=Jennifer L. |url=https://archive.org/details/copperheads00jenn |title=Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North|url=https://archive.org/details/copperheads00jenn|url-access=registration|last=Weber|first=Jennifer L.|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York City|year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-530668-2 |location=New York City |page=64 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2020}} The Copperheads also saw the Proclamation as an unconstitutional abuse of presidential power. Editor Henry A. Reeves wrote in Greenport's ''Republican Watchman'' that "In the name of freedom for Negroes, [the proclamation] imperils the liberty of white men; to test an utopian theory of equality of races which Nature, History and Experience alike condemn as monstrous, it overturns the Constitution and Civil Laws and sets up Military Usurpation in their stead."<ref name="Weber"/>{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

Racism remained pervasive on both sides of the conflict and many in the North supported the war only as an effort to force the South to stay in the Union. The promises of many Republican politicians that the war was to restore the Union and not about black rights or ending slavery were declared lies by their opponents, who cited the Proclamation. Copperhead David Allen spoke to a rally inIn Columbiana, Ohio, stating,Copperhead "IDavid haveAllen told youa that this war is carried on for the Negro. There is the proclamation of the President of the United States.crowd, "Now fellow Democrats I ask you if you are going to be forced into a war against your Britheren<!--quote in cited source uses 'i', not 'e'--> of the Southern States for the Negro. I answer No!"<ref name="archive.org:2">{{HarvnbCite book |last=Weber |2006first=Jennifer L. |purl=[https://archive.org/details/copperheads00jenn/ |title=Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-530668-2 |location=New York City |page/=65 65]|url-access=registration}}</ref> The Copperheads saw the Proclamation as irrefutable proof of their position and the beginning of a political rise for their members; in Connecticut, H. B. Whiting wrote that the truth was now plain even to "those stupid thickheaded persons who persisted in thinking that the President was a conservative man and that the war was for the restoration of the Union under the Constitution."<ref name="archive.org:2" />

[[War Democrats]], who rejected the Copperhead position within their party, found themselves in a quandary. While throughout the war they had continued to espouse the racist positions of their party and their disdain of the concerns of slaves, they did see the Proclamation as a viable military tool against the South and worried that opposing it might demoralize troops in the Union army. The question would continue to trouble them and eventually lead to a split within their party as the war progressed.<ref name="Weber:2" />{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

Lincoln further alienated many in the Union two days after issuing the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation by [[Habeas corpus in the United States#Presidential suspension of habeas corpus|suspending habeas corpus]]. His opponents linked these two actions in their claims that he was becoming a despot. In light of this and a lack of military success for the Union armies, many War Democrat voters who had previously supported Lincoln turned against him and joined the Copperheads in the off-year elections held in October and November.<ref name="Weber:2" />{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

In the [[United States House of Representatives elections, 1862|1862 elections]], the Democrats gained 28 seats in the House as well as the governorship of New York. Lincoln's friend Orville Hickman Browning told the president that the Proclamation and the suspension of habeas corpus had been "disastrous" for his party by handing the Democrats so many weapons. Lincoln made no response. Copperhead William JavisJarvis of Connecticut pronounced the election the "beginning of the end of the utter downfall of [[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionism]]".<ref name="Weber:1"/>{{pageCite book needed|datelast=SeptemberWeber 2020|first=Jennifer L. |url=https://archive.org/details/copperheads00jenn |title=Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-530668-2 |location=New York City |page=69 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Historians James M. McPherson and Allan Nevins state that though the results looked very troubling, they could be seen favorably by Lincoln; his opponents did well only in their historic strongholds and "at the national level their gains in the House were the smallest of any minority party's in an off-year election in nearly a generation. Michigan, California, and Iowa all went Republican.... Moreover, the Republicans picked up five seats in the Senate."<ref name="Weber:1" /> McPherson states, "If the election was in any sense a referendum on emancipation and on Lincoln's conduct of the war, a majority of Northern voters endorsed these policies."<ref name="Weber:1" />{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

The initial Confederate response was outrage. The Proclamation was seen as vindication of the rebellion and proof that Lincoln would have abolished slavery even if the states had remained in the Union.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Rebel Message: What Jefferson Davis Has to Say|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX-K12&p_theme=ahnp_k12&p_nbid=E59Q56PUMTMyNTY5MTAwNy4yOTAyNjM6MToxMzozOC4xMDUuOTYuMjM4&p_action=timelinedoc&p_docref=v2:11A050B7B120D3F8@EANX-11AE489CABB99E68@2401523-11AE489CB81982E0@0-11AE489D1F55ED48@The+Rebel+Message.+The+Document+in+Full.+What+Jeff.+Davis+Says+of+President+Lincoln%27s+Emancipation+Proclamation&d_doclabel=The+Rebel+Message%3A+What+Jefferson+Davis+Has+to+Say|work=New York Herald|publisher=America's Historical Newspapers|access-date=January 4, 2012}}</ref> It intensified the fear of slaves revolting and undermined morale, especially spurring fear among slave owners who saw it as a threat to their business.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Emancipation Proclamation: Striking a Mighty Blow to Slavery |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/emancipation-proclamation-striking-mighty-blow-slavery |website=[[National MusuemMuseum of African History and Culture]] -– Smithsonian |publisher=[[Smithsonian]] |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> In an August 1863 letter to President Lincoln, U.S. Army general [[Ulysses S. Grant]] observed that the proclamation's "arming the negro", together with "the emancipation of the negro, is the heavyest [''sic''] blow yet given the Confederacy. The South rave a greatdeel [''sic''] about it and profess to be very angry."<ref>{{cite web|quote=I have given the subject of arming the Negro my hearty support. This, with the emancipation of the Negro, is the heaviest blow yet given the Confederacy. The South rave a greatdeel about it and profess to be very angry. |first=Ulysses |last=Grant |author-link=Ulysses S. Grant |url=http://www.civil-war-tribute.com/us-grant-letter-to-lincoln-08231863.htm |location=Cairo, Illinois |title=Letter to Abraham Lincoln |date=August 23, 1863 |access-date=May 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503212700/http://www.civil-war-tribute.com/us-grant-letter-to-lincoln-08231863.htm |archive-date=May 3, 2014 }}</ref> In May 1863, a few months after the Proclamation took effect, the Confederacy passed a law demanding "full and ample retaliation" against the U.S. for such measures. The Confederacy stated that black U.S. soldiers captured while fighting against the Confederacy would be tried as slave insurrectionists in civil courts—a capital offense with an automatic sentence of death. Less than a year after the law's passage, the Confederates massacred black U.S. soldiers at [[Battle of Fort Pillow|Fort Pillow]].<ref>{{Cite book|first=Bruce|last=Tap|title=The Fort Pillow Massacre: North, South, and the Status of African Americans in the Civil War Era|publisher=Routledge|date=2013}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

Confederate General [[Robert E. Lee]] called the Proclamation a "savage and brutal policy he has proclaimed, which leaves us no alternative but success or degradation worse than death."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210514095239/https://leefamilyarchive.org/family-papers/letters/letters-1863/9-family-papers/1180-robert-e-lee-to-james-a-seddon-1863-january-10 Lee Family Digital Archive]</ref>

Lincoln's proclamation has been called "one of the most radical emancipations in the history of the modern world."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Hahn |first=Steven |date=2011-01-13 |title=Discovering Equality |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/81377/lincoln-slavery-fiery-trial-review |magazine=The New Republic |issn=0028-6583}}</ref> Nonetheless, as over the years American society continued to be deeply unfair towards black people, cynicism towards Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation increased. One attack was [[Lerone Bennett, Jr.|Lerone Bennett's]] ''[[Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream]]'' (2000), which claimed that Lincoln was a white supremacist who issued the Emancipation Proclamation in lieu of the real racial reforms for which radical abolitionists pushed. To this, one scholarly review states that "Few Civil War scholars take Bennett and [[Thomas DiLorenzo|DiLorenzo]] seriously, pointing to their narrow political agenda and faulty research."<ref>{{cite journal |url= https://muse.jhu.edu/article/315139 |last=Dirck |first=Brian |title=''Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery'', and ''Act of Justice: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War'', and ''Lincoln and Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth Amendment'' (review) |journal=Civil War History |date=September 2009 |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages= 382–385|doi=10.1353/cwh.0.0090 |s2cid=143986160 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In his ''Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation'', [[Allen C. Guelzo]] noted professional historians' lack of substantial respect for the document, since it has been the subject of few major scholarly studies. He argued that Lincoln was the U.S.'s "last [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] politician"<ref>{{harvnb|Guelzo|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MOFHPTQYqzgC&pg=PA3 3]}}</ref> and as such had "allegiance to 'reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason'.... But the most important among the Enlightenment's political virtues for Lincoln, and for his Proclamation, was prudence".<ref>{{harvnb|Guelzo|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MOFHPTQYqzgC&pg=PA3 3]}}</ref>

<blockquote>Perhaps in rejecting the critical dualism—Lincoln as individual emancipator pitted against collective self-emancipators—there is an opportunity to recognise the greater persuasiveness of the combination. In a sense, yes: a racist, flawed Lincoln did something heroic, and not in lieu of collective participation, but next to, and enabled, by it. To venerate a singular 'Great Emancipator' may be as reductive as dismissing the significance of Lincoln's ''actions''. Who he was as a man, no one of us can ever really know. So it is that the version of Lincoln we keep is also the version we make.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baas.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/asib108-kal%20ashraf.pdf |title='Editorial in', American Studies in Britain |series=(108: Spring 2013) |p=2|issn=1465-9956 |first=Kal |last=Ashraf |publisher=[[British Association for American Studies]] |date=March 2013 |access-date=2013-03-28 |archive-date=June 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623212050/https://www.baas.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/asib108-kal%20ashraf.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

In the 1963 [[List of The Andy Griffith Show episodes#Season Four (1963-64)|episode]] of ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'', "Andy Discovers America", Andy asks [[Barney Fife|Barney]] to explain the Emancipation Proclamation to [[Opie Taylor|Opie]] who is struggling with history at school.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tvland.com/shows/andy-griffith-show/episode-guide/season-3|title=Episode Guide|work=tvland.com|publisher=[[TV Land]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113044056/http://www.tvland.com/shows/andy-griffith-show/episode-guide/season-3|archive-date=November 13, 2013}}</ref> Barney brags about his history expertise, yet it is apparent he cannot answer Andy's question. He finally becomes frustrated and explains it is a proclamation for certain people who wanted emancipation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBXUaM6t58| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101174953/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBXUaM6t58&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2013-01-01|title=Barney Fife Explains The Emancipation Proclamation|work=Episode clip, The Andy Griffith Show|via=YouTube}}</ref> In addition, the Emancipation Proclamation was also a main item of discussion in the movie ''[[Lincoln (film)|Lincoln]]'' (2012) directed by [[Steven Spielberg]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Scott|first=A. O.|date=2012-11-08|title=A President Engaged in a Great Civil War|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/movies/lincoln-by-steven-spielberg-stars-daniel-day-lewis.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/movies/lincoln-by-steven-spielberg-stars-daniel-day-lewis.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|access-date=2021-06-01|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The Emancipation Proclamation is celebrated around the world, including on stamps of nations such as the Republic of [[Togo]].<ref>"[https://aragopostalmuseum.si.edu/record_202794_img_1object/npm_2009.2004.html1 .5fr Centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation]", Arago: people, postage & the post, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, viewed September 28, 2014</ref> The United States commemorative was issued on August 16, 1963, the opening day of the Century of Negro Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Designed by [[Georg Olden (graphic designer)|Georg Olden]], an initial printing of 120&nbsp;million stamps was authorized.<ref name="Emancipation Proclamation Issue"/>{{clear}}

* [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] -– 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

* Blair, William A. and Younger, Karen Fisher, eds. ''Lincoln's Proclamation: Emancipation Reconsidered'' (The University of North Carolina Press, 2009) {{ISBN|978-0-8078-3316-2}} [https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/bookreviews-MA2010-pdf-1.pdf Review]

* [http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/Home/James-McPherson-2012.aspx Webcast Discussion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704053926/https://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/Home/James-McPherson-2012.aspx |date=July 4, 2013 }} with Pulitzer Prize-winning author [[James Alan McPherson|James McPherson]] and James Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Collection in the [[Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum]] about the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation