One hundred fifty years ago tomorrow, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It has come to symbolize the end of slavery in this nation, but at the time it served a more practical purpose. It fomented unrest in the South.
It did not free any slaves anywhere. In fact, slaves in states that did not secede remained slaves, as did those in captured territories.
Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley in 1862:
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save Slavery, I do not agree with
Lincoln pens Emancipation Proclamation (Getty Images at WSJ)
them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery. 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. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
The proclamation did prompt slaves to flee the South. By the end of the war 200,000 were soldiers or sailors for the North and hundreds of thousands more were laborers for the Army and its supply lines.
The proclamation may have also swayed England and France to not join the cotton rich South in the war.
In fact, David Von Drehle writes in a recent Wall Street Journal article:
Lincoln harbored scant hope that whites and blacks could live happily in an integrated society.
“You and we are different races,” he told a group of Washington’s black leaders during a meeting on Aug. 14, 1862. This difference, he asserted, was the cause of the Civil War: “But for your race among us, there could not be war.” With that introduction, he proposed that his guests lead a mass exodus of freed blacks to distant colonies, leaving America to the whites.
It was not until the passage of the 13th Amendment that slavery was truly and legally ended.
Available at The Great Courses under the title: A Skeptic’s Guide to American History.
Hope you have seen the new Spielberg/Kushner Lincoln movie.
You should also read Sean Willentz’s essay about the movie in this week’s New Republic.
Not yet, Petey, but I plan to. I’ve heard good things about it.
________________________________
The movie addresses, in very interesting and remarkably subtle ways, the very topic of your essay. And Day-Lewis is amazingly good.
Nyp: Thank you for the reference to Sean Willentz’ essay. I enjoyed reading it.
If you want to go deep, deep into the weeds his book on the early republic is very good. (He is also the author of a new history of Columbia Records!)
I’ve always loved unity enforced by the barrel of a gun…
So not only does “Winston Smith” believe that 9/11 was a set-up perpetrated by the US government, he also believes that the Southern Confederacy should have been allowed to secede.
As an aside, would the Union gone to war if the South had dealt with the situation with endless negotiation instead of attacking Fort Sumpter as they did?
The federal government does not ban the public owing machine guns, it makes the licensing and registration so onerous most in the public simply cannot make the grade or pay the costs.
It is unconstitutional to actually outlaw my owning a machine gun but they can make it virtually impossible to acquire each one legally and this is what has been done as regards these weapons.
1. I don’t think your comment pertains to this post, but never mind.
2. I very much doubt you are right. Evidence?
3. In the event you happen to be correct, Thomas Mitchell would say that what the federal government is doing ought to be deemed unconstitutional.
No I placed this post on the wrong thread, sorry.
But here it is:
Q: How can an individual legally acquire NFA firearms?
Basically, there are 2 ways that an individual (who is not prohibited by Federal, State, or local law from receiving or possessing firearms) may legally acquire NFA firearms:
By transfer after approval by ATF of a registered weapon from its lawful owner residing in the same State as the transferee.
By obtaining prior approval from ATF to make NFA firearms.
[27 CFR 479.62-66 and 479.84-86]
Just saw “Lincoln.” Excellent movie, well acted. I thought the script could’ve done more about Lincoln’s ambivalence as to what to do about free slaves, but he was a principled abolitionist and that clear.
Yeah – really thoughtful film. I might see it again.