Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America

It represented a major step toward the ultimate abolition of slavery in the United States and a "new birth of freedom". 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 whites had fled to the mainland while the blacks stayed. An early program of Reconstruction was set up for the former slaves, including schools and training. Naval officers read the proclamation and told them they were free.

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. According to Albright, plantation owners tried to keep the Proclamation from slaves but news 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. Lee saw the Emancipation Proclamation as a way for the Union to bolster the number of soldiers it could place on the field, making it imperative for the Confederacy to increase their own numbers. Writing on the matter after the sack of 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, 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.

The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperhead Democrats who opposed the war and advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery. Horatio Seymour , while running for the governorship 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".

Reeves wrote in Greenport's Republican Watchman that "In the name of freedom of Negroes, [the proclamation] imperils the liberty of white men; to test a 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. 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 now declared lies by their opponents citing the Proclamation. Copperhead David Allen spoke to a rally in Columbiana, Ohio, stating, "I have told you that this war is carried on for the Negro. There is the proclamation of the President of the United States. Now fellow Democrats I ask you if you are going to be forced into a war against your Brithren of the Southern States for the Negro.

Whiting wrote that the truth was now plain even to "those stupid thick-headed 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". 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. Lincoln further alienated many in the Union two days after issuing the preliminary copy of the Emancipation Proclamation by 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.

In the 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.

Lincoln’s Position on Slavery

Copperhead William Javis of Connecticut pronounced the election the "beginning of the end of the utter downfall of Abolitionism in the United States ". 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.

The initial Confederate response was one of expected outrage. The Proclamation was seen as vindication for the rebellion, and proof that Lincoln would have abolished slavery even if the states had remained in the Union. Army general Ulysses S. Grant observed that the Proclamation, combined with the usage of black soldiers by the U. Army, profoundly angered the Confederacy, saying that "the emancipation of the Negro, is the heaviest blow yet given the Confederacy.

The South rave a great deal about it and profess to be very angry. The Confederacy stated that the black U. Less than a year after the law's passage, the Confederates massacred black U. However, some Confederates welcomed the Proclamation, as they believed it would strengthen pro-slavery sentiment in the Confederacy and, thus, lead to greater enlistment of white men into the Confederate army. According to one Confederate man from Kentucky, "The Proclamation is worth three hundred thousand soldiers to our Government at least It shows exactly what this war was brought about for and the intention of its damnable authors.

One Union soldier from New York stated worryingly after the Proclamation's passage, "I know enough of the Southern spirit that I think they will fight for the institution of slavery even to extermination. As a result of the Proclamation, the price of slaves in the Confederacy increased in the months after its issuance, with one Confederate from South Carolina opining in that "now is the time for Uncle to buy some negro women and children. As Lincoln had hoped, the Proclamation turned foreign popular opinion in favor of the Union by gaining the support of anti-slavery countries and countries that had already abolished slavery especially the developed countries in Europe such as Great Britain or France.

This shift ended the Confederacy's hopes of gaining official recognition. Since the Emancipation Proclamation made the eradication of slavery an explicit Union war goal, it linked support for the South to support for slavery. Public opinion in Britain would not tolerate direct support for slavery. British companies, however, continued to build and operate blockade runners for the South. As Henry Adams noted, "The Emancipation Proclamation has done more for us than all our former victories and all our diplomacy.

On August 6, , Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln: Mayor Abel Haywood, a representative for workers from Manchester , England, wrote to Lincoln saying, "We joyfully honor you for many decisive steps toward practically exemplifying your belief in the words of your great founders: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in November made indirect reference to the Proclamation and the ending of slavery as a war goal with the phrase "new birth of freedom". The Proclamation solidified Lincoln's support among the rapidly growing abolitionist element of the Republican Party and ensured that they would not block his re-nomination in In December , Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction , which dealt with the ways the rebel states could reconcile with the Union.

Key provisions required that the states accept the Emancipation Proclamation and thus the freedom of their slaves, and accept the Confiscation Acts , as well as the Act banning of slavery in United States territories. Near the end of the war, abolitionists were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be construed solely as a war measure, Lincoln's original intent, and would no longer apply once fighting ended.

They were also increasingly anxious to secure the freedom of all slaves, not just those freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Thus pressed, Lincoln staked a large part of his presidential campaign on a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery uniformly throughout the United States. Lincoln's campaign was bolstered by separate votes in both Maryland and Missouri to abolish slavery in those states. Maryland's new constitution abolishing slavery took effect in November Slavery in Missouri was ended by executive proclamation of its governor, Thomas C. Fletcher, on January 11, Winning re-election, Lincoln pressed the lame duck 38th Congress to pass the proposed amendment immediately rather than wait for the incoming 39th Congress to convene.

In January , Congress sent to the state legislatures for ratification what became the Thirteenth Amendment , banning slavery in all U. The amendment was ratified by the legislatures of enough states by December 6, , and proclaimed 12 days later. There were about 40, slaves in Kentucky and 1, in Delaware who were liberated then.

As the years went on and American life continued to be deeply unfair towards blacks, cynicism towards Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation increased. Perhaps the strongest attack was Lerone Bennett's Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream , 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. Guelzo noted the 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 US's "last Enlightenment politician " [] and as such was dedicated to removing slavery strictly within the bounds of law. Other historians have given more credit to Lincoln for what he accomplished within the tensions of his cabinet and a society at war, for his own growth in political and moral stature, and for the promise he held out to the slaves.

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As Eric Foner wrote:. Lincoln was not an abolitionist or Radical Republican, a point Bennett reiterates innumerable times. He did not favor immediate abolition before the war, and held racist views typical of his time. But he was also a man of deep convictions when it came to slavery, and during the Civil War displayed a remarkable capacity for moral and political growth. 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: To venerate a singular —Great Emancipator' may be as reductive as dismissing the significance of Lincoln's actions.

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• "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America" by Allen C. Guelzo.

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. Martin Luther King Jr. These include a speech made at an observance of the hundredth anniversary of the issuing of the Proclamation made in New York City on September 12, where he placed it alongside the Declaration of Independence as an "imperishable" contribution to civilization, and "All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations".

He lamented that despite a history where the United States "proudly professed the basic principles inherent in both documents", it "sadly practiced the antithesis of these principles".

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

He concluded "There is but one way to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation. That is to make its declarations of freedom real; to reach back to the origins of our nation when our message of equality electrified an unfree world, and reaffirm democracy by deeds as bold and daring as the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. King's most famous invocation of the Emancipation Proclamation was in a speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom often referred to as the " I Have a Dream " speech. King began the speech saying "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. In the early s, Dr. Kennedy to bypass a Southern segregationist opposition in the Congress by issuing an executive order to put an end to segregation. This envisioned document was referred to as the "Second Emancipation Proclamation". On June 11, , President Kennedy appeared on national television to address the issue of civil rights.

Kennedy, who had been routinely criticized as timid by some of the leaders of the civil rights movement, told Americans that two black students had been peacefully enrolled in the University of Alabama with the aid of the National Guard despite the opposition of Governor George Wallace. John Kennedy called it a "moral issue" [] Invoking the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation he said. In the same speech, Kennedy announced he would introduce comprehensive civil rights legislation to the United States Congress which he did a week later he continued to push for its passage until his assassination in November Joseph holds Lyndon Johnson's ability to get that bill, the Civil Rights Act of , passed on July 2, was aided by "the moral forcefulness of the June 11 speech" which turned "the narrative of civil rights from a regional issue into a national story promoting racial equality and democratic renewal".

During the civil rights movement of the s, Lyndon B.

Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation

Johnson invoked the Emancipation Proclamation holding it up as a promise yet to be fully implemented. As Vice President while speaking from Gettysburg on May 30, Memorial Day , at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Johnson connected it directly with the ongoing civil rights struggles of the time saying "One hundred years ago, the slave was freed. One hundred years later, the Negro remains in bondage to the color of his skin In this hour, it is not our respective races which are at stake—it is our nation. Let those who care for their country come forward, North and South, white and Negro, to lead the way through this moment of challenge and decision Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

To the extent that the proclamation of emancipation is not fulfilled in fact, to that extent we shall have fallen short of assuring freedom to the free. As president, Johnson again invoked the proclamation in a speech presenting the Voting Rights Act at a joint session of Congress on Monday, March 15, This was one week after violence had been inflicted on peaceful civil rights marchers during the Selma to Montgomery marches.

And we shall overcome. As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil, I know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society. But a century has passed—more than years—since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight. It was more than years ago that Abraham Lincoln—a great President of another party—signed the Emancipation Proclamation. But emancipation is a proclamation and not a fact.

A century has passed—more than years—since equality was promised, and yet the Negro is not equal. A century has passed since the day of promise, and the promise is unkept. The time of justice has now come, and I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come, and when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American.

He finally becomes frustrated and explains it is a proclamation for certain people who wanted emancipation. Bigger, Longer and Uncut , Chef asks the military commander if he has "ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation? The Emancipation Proclamation is celebrated around the world including on stamps of nations such as the Republic of Togo. Designed by Georg Olden , an initial printing of million stamps was authorized. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about American history. For emancipation proclamations in other countries, see Abolition of slavery timeline.

Henry Lewis Stephens , untitled watercolor c. The five page original document, held in the National Archives Building. Until it had been bound with other proclamations in a large volume held by the Department of State. By country or region. He has provided the best account to date of the political virtuosity and unswerving idealism that gave Lincoln his victory in the difficult battle to destroy slavery.

With this volume, decades of misunderstanding about Lincoln's most controversial action now give way to exactly what Lincoln's proclamation was, for then and for all times. Get our latest book recommendations, author news, and sweepstakes right to your inbox. By clicking 'Sign me up' I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the privacy policy and terms of use , and the transfer of my personal data to the United States, where the privacy laws may be different than those in my country of residence.

Tell us what you like, so we can send you books you'll love. Join our mailing list! Price may vary by retailer. Introduction The Emancipation Proclamation is surely the unhappiest of all of Abraham Lincoln's great presidential papers. Taken at face value, the Emancipation Proclamation was the most revolutionary pronouncement ever signed by an American president, striking the legal shackles from four million black slaves and setting the nation's face toward the total abolition of slavery within three more years. Today, however, the Proclamation is probably best known for what it did not do, beginning with its apparent failure to rise to the level of eloquence Lincoln achieved in the Gettysburg Address or the Second Inaugural.

Even in the s, Karl Marx, the author of a few proclamations of his own, found that the language of the Proclamation, with its ponderous whereases and therefores, reminded him of "ordinary summonses sent by one lawyer to another on the opposing side. A onetime member of the circle of American Marxist intellectuals around Partisan Review, Hofstadter repudiated the traditional Progressive view of American political history as a struggle between the legacies of the liberal Thomas Jefferson and the conservative Alexander Hamilton.

Instead, Hofstadter viewed American politics as a single, consistent, and deeply cynical story of how capitalism had corrupted Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians alike and turned the United States into "a democracy of cupidity rather than a democracy of fraternity. Lincoln's opposition to slavery, in Hofstadter's reckoning, was kindled only by the threat it posed to free white labor and the development of industrial capitalism. Lincoln "was, as always, thinking primarily of the free white worker" and was "never much troubled about the Negro.

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Its motives were entirely other than had been advertised, and that fact explained its stylistic flaccidity. That centennial itself was a disappointing affair, capped by President John F. Kennedy's refusal to give the principal address at ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial on September 22, , for fear of suffering deeper losses of Southern Democrats in his reelection bid the next year. As the Proclamation's negative symbolic power has risen, efforts to interpret the text have diminished, and examination of the Proclamation's contents has subsided into offhand guesswork and angry prejudice.

The Proclamation has become a document as Garry Wills once described the Declaration of Independence "dark with unexamined lights. Recapturing at least some of those assumptions will begin, I think, with recognizing in Abraham Lincoln our last Enlightenment politician. The contours of Lincoln's mind -- his allegiance to "reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason"; his aversion to the politics of passion; the distance he maintained from organized religion; his affection for Shakespeare, Paine, and Robert Burns; and his unquestioning belief in universal natural rights -- were all shaped by the hand of the Enlightenment.

But the most important among the Enlightenment's political virtues for Lincoln, and for his Proclamation, was prudence. Prudence carries with it today the connotation of "prude" -- a person of exaggerated caution, bland temperance, hesitation, a lack of imagination and will, fearfulness, and a bad case of mincing steps.

This view would have surprised the classical philosophers, who thought of prudence as one of the four cardinal virtues and who linked it to shrewdness, exceptionally good judgment, and the gift of coup d'oeil -- the "coup of the eye" -- which could take in the whole of a situation at once and know almost automatically how to proceed. Among political scientists, it has more specific meanings, but those meanings are usually just as repellent -- of cunning, and in some quarters, an unhealthy preoccupation with the neo-classicism of Leo Strauss.

So let me say, for the benefit of the hunters of subtexts, that I can cheerfully confess to never having read Leo Strauss, nor, for that matter, to possessing much aptitude for the peculiar dialect spoken by my political science friends. It is an ironic rather than a tragic attitude, in which the calculus of costs is critical rather than crucial or incidental. It prefers incremental progress to categorical solutions and fosters that progress through the offering of motives rather than expecting to change dispositions.

Yet, unlike mere moderation, it has a sense of purposeful motion and declines to be paralyzed by a preoccupation with process, even while it remains aware that there is no goal so easily attained or so fully attained that it rationalizes dispensing with process altogether. Montesquieu found the origins of political greatness in "prudence, wisdom, perseverance," since prudence would "guard the passions of individuals for the sake of order and guard the guardians for the sake of freedom.

The practice of politics involved the rule of prudence, and "obeying the dictates of prudence" was as important for Lincoln as obeying "the obligations of law. The most salient feature to emerge from the sixteen months between his inauguration and the first presentation of the Proclamation to his cabinet on July 22, , is the consistency with which Lincoln's face was set toward the goal of emancipation from the day he first took the presidential oath. Lincoln was not exaggerating when he claimed in that he "hated" slavery: I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself.

I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world -- enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites -- causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty -- criticising the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.

But in Lincoln's case, prudence demanded that he balance the integrity of ends the elimination of slavery with the integrity of means his oath to uphold the Constitution and his near-religious reverence for the rule of law. Lincoln understood emancipation not as the satisfaction of a "spirit" overriding the law, nor as the moment of fusion between the Constitution and absolute moral theory, but as a goal to be achieved through prudential means, so that worthwhile consequences might result. He could not be persuaded that emancipation required the headlong abandonment of everything save the single absolute of abolition, or that purity of intention was all that mattered, or that the exercise of the will rather than the reason was the best ethical foot forward.

Far too often, Lincoln's apologists hope to give the lie to Hofstadter's scalding attack by pulling apart means and ends, either apologizing for the former or explaining away the latter, a sure sign that they have no better grasp on the politics of prudence than Hofstadter. Most often, this pulling apart happens whenever we are tempted to plead that Lincoln was either a man in progress or a man of patience.

That is, Lincoln was as Horace Greeley put it "a growing man," growing in this case from a stance of moral indifference and ignorance about emancipation at the time of his election in , toward deep conviction about African-American freedom by the time of the Emancipation Proclamation less than two years later. Or else that Lincoln already had all the racial goodwill necessary for emancipation but had to wait until the right moment in the war or the right moment in the growth of Northern acceptance of the idea of emancipation.

These are both generous sentiments, but I am not sure that generosity is quite what is needed for understanding Lincoln's proclamation. Rather than needing to develop progress, I believe that Abraham Lincoln understood from the first that his administration was the beginning of the end of slavery and that he would not leave office without some form of legislative emancipation policy in place. Yet it has seldom been given the respect it deserves. He does so by examining the context in which the Proclamation was delivered; the motives behind its creation; and the actual effects it had on slaves and slavery.

Marx was correct that that the Proclamation echoed an ordinary legal summons; it was, in point of fact, a legal document, one that would eventually have been scrutinized by a federal court, if not for the Thirteenth Amendment. Certainly, the Emancipation Proclamation is the central feature around which everything is organized.

But this is not a monograph. Slavery caused the Civil War. The South seceded from the Union because of the fear that Lincoln would as he promised stop the spread of slavery to the western territories. This was a huge issue, one that the U. The South believed that if slavery could not spread, it would eventually die, no small matter since slaves represented billions of dollars in assets. The simple mathematics of representation each new free state created two new senators and a handful of representatives doomed them to being surrounded by political enemies. Though slavery caused the war, Lincoln did not initially prosecute it in order to end slavery.

This is what we are told, at least. Instead, his stated reason was to preserve the Union. For Lincoln, the preservation of the Union was tantamount to the preservation of democracy, not just here, but everywhere. In this letter, Lincoln announced that if he could restore the United States without freeing a single slave, he would do just that. This letter tends to embody the conventional wisdom of Lincoln as a man who only gradually came to the light of freedom. Of course, by the time Lincoln contacted Greeley, he had already written the Emancipation Proclamation.

Despite this avowed purpose, everyone understood that once a war began over slavery, the end of slavery was a possible — if not probable — result of a Union victory. Just look at General George B. McClellan, the ill-starred commander of the Army of the Potomac until November One of his hobbies was writing Lincoln manifestos in which he opined on this very issue. It sometimes seemed more a concern of his than actually achieving victory.

Frankly, I had not read much about this, and it was really eye opening. One of the favorite criticisms of Lincoln-loathers is that he continually exceeded his Constitutional authority. Nevertheless, Lincoln personally felt himself constrained by the Constitution, and tried his best to operate within its parameters. Compensated emancipation was one of his work-arounds, a bottom-up scheme to end slavery at the state legislative level. As Guelzo admits, this did not satisfy members of his own party.

But it shows Lincoln charting his own path to that same destination. In presenting his concept of remunerative emancipation to Congress on December 1, , Lincoln famously wrote: We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth. As Guelzo shows, the Proclamation proved very unpopular, at least among the people with the loudest voices.

It angered Democrats by going too far, and angered Republicans by not going far enough. It led to electoral losses and no small amount of dissent, including within the turbulent high command of the Army of the Potomac. Allen Guelzo is one of my favorite Civil War historians.

His book on the battle of Gettysburg Gettysburg: He has a remarkable ability to shift seamlessly between disciplines. His work here encompasses not only military and political history, but social history as well. It is fascinating to see the dizzying heights and nauseating lows experienced by the reputation of the greatest President in United States history.

The oration is captivating in its bluntness, its complexity, and its nuance. View all 6 comments. Jul 11, Jerome rated it it was amazing. To circumvent these considerable obstacles, Lincoln proposed a system of compensated emancipation for the border states and explored the possibility of re-colonizing freed blacks to Central America or the western US.

As Guelzo reveals, Lincoln was reluctant to deal with slavery through anything resembling executive action, recognizing that this would meet strong opposition in the courts. Guelzo thoroughly describes the resistance of the border states and how US military commanders dealt with the issue of slaves escaping to their lines--some allowed the refugees to remain protected within their lines while others excluded them from camp.

Eventually, the War Department made it a criminal offense for Union soldiers to assist the rebels in recovering their slaves. Some Union soldiers did whatever they could to aid these refugees, while others took them on as servants or abused them verbally, physically, and sexually. Guelzo explores what effect the proclamation had on the union, the Confederacy, free blacks, slaves, the international community, and the conduct of the war. Critics have long repeated the myth that the Proclamation did not free a single slave because it applied only to areas the Union did not control and exempted areas occupied by Union forces.

But those areas had to be excluded in order to sustain the argument that military necessity demanded emancipation: Dec 15, John Young rated it it was amazing. This is perhaps the best book I have ever read about the Civil War era. Sandburg's books on Lincoln were excellent, and Shelby Foote's books on the Civil War were great for their breadth and military content.

However, this book by Allen Guelzo provides a detailed discussion of the end of slavery and arguments about its constitutionality, moral aspects, legal aspects, and how Lincoln responded to all of the criticisms from all of these viewpoints. It also provides more insights into Lincoln's per This is perhaps the best book I have ever read about the Civil War era. It also provides more insights into Lincoln's personality than most books, and shows some very vivid reactions of enslaved people to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Apr 08, R. Byers rated it it was amazing. Jan 12, Erika rated it it was amazing. This book was a very good read and its a good read for anyone interested in Lincoln and the politics in play during the civil war. Very eye opening for me. Wading into the argument of Lincoln's Emancipation proclamation, noted Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo [1] seeks to place this most notable and prosaic of Lincoln's pronouncements into a sound historical context and manages to do so.

In the process, he reveals the tension between Lincoln's words and deeds, and the way that slavery was ended in the United States [2] and the long-term consequences and repercussions of the choices that Lincoln made and refused to make. Throughout the book, the autho Wading into the argument of Lincoln's Emancipation proclamation, noted Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo [1] seeks to place this most notable and prosaic of Lincoln's pronouncements into a sound historical context and manages to do so.

Throughout the book, the author shows Lincoln to have been motivated by a strong sense of prudence and pragmatism of an enlightened kind that was deeply concerned not with appealing to grand heroic gestures and soaring prose, but to making meaningful and lasting change, ultimately to end slavery in the United States in a way that would do the most good as possible and the least harm to society as for.

To our age prudential morality and prudence in general is not viewed in a particularly noble light, but Lincoln's prudence was well-founded and the author validates the approach of the Emancipation Proclamation through the perspective of history. As is frequently the case, this particular book is written in chronological order and takes about pages to cover five reasonably long chapters and a short post-script.

After a lengthy and eloquent acknowledgements section and an introduction that questions the harsh criticism the language of the Emancipation Proclamation has endured over the course of the 20th century and places Lincoln firmly in the place of a rational Enlightenment political philosopher, the author digs deeply into both the text and context of the Emancipation Proclamation.

First showing the four possible routes to freedom for enslaved blacks, the author makes a strong defense of Lincoln's approach given his fears of military coups and his well-placed mistrust in the courts. Later chapters show the delicate process by which Lincoln prepared the nation for the Emancipation Proclamation and showed himself to be an instrument in God's hands, if an often misunderstood one.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo

The author then notes the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation in serving as an encouragement to slave states to engage in gradual and compensated emancipation, which was not a very popular proposition and notes the increasing despair in which many blacks feel about the United States and their resulting negativity towards Lincoln himself. This book has a lot to say about the Emancipation Proclamation and is an essential book for those wishing to know the document and its importance better.

The author makes a convincing case that Lincoln sacrificed his usual gift for eloquence in order to attempt to make a declaration that would be as immune as possible to legal challenges while the Civil War was ongoing. His mistrust of the legislative solution to slavery in light of probable court challenges was shown to be reasonable in light of the dismal record of the Reconstruction and Guilded Age Supreme Court in defending the rights of freedmen. Without seeking to pander to contemporary progressives, a common fault among people who write about Lincoln and his behavior towards slavery, the author gives a sound historical argument that demonstrates Lincoln's political savvy as well as his unusual but distinctive view on justice and the way it can best be approximated in this fallen world.

For those who want to understand how a prosaic and seemingly mundane piece of writing that dramatically and decisively increased the scope of Union war aims and brought blacks en masse into the United States military and made their civil rights a matter of national honor and moral debt, this book is an excellent volume. Mar 24, Tonja rated it liked it. Is the academic world in need of yet another book on Abraham Lincoln?

Well-known Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo makes a convincing argument for his revisionist interpretation, one that is more congruous with Lincoln the man than previously historians have offered. However, along the way, he diminishes the importance of his revised view of the man and his Proclamation by invoking Providence as a key player in the enactment.