Explain Abraham Lincoln reasoning when he finally decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.?

Answer 1

Lincoln was reluctant to issue an Emancipation Proclamation but you would have thought from what one is taught in class these days this was his primary concern. He issued the proclamation to save the Union making impossible for foreign Governments to intervene on behalf of the Confederacy. Even though the English supported (indirectly) slavery, they like other countries were officially against the practice. By his actions, Lincoln was showing the US was against slavery but not the Confederacy. If like the leaders of these countries at the time, you took the time to read and study the act you would see it does nothing and in fact, Lincoln thought that the Afro American was not the equal of whites and his plan was to resettle the slaves in either the Amazon or Western Texas.

Most people are not aware that there was a series of action and even proclamations for instance Lincolns correspondence of October 14, 1862 to the military and civilian authorities of occupied Louisiana.

“Major General Butler, Governor Shepley, & and [sic] all having military and naval authority under the United States within the S[t]ate of Louisiana. The bearer of this, Hon. John E. Bouligny, a citizen of Louisiana, goes to the State seeking to have such of the people thereof as desire to avoid the unsatisfactory prospect before them, and to have peace again upon the old terms under the constitution of the United States, to manifest such desire by elections of members to the Congress of the United States particularly, and perhaps a legislature, State officers, and United States Senators friendly to their object. I shall be glad for you and each of you, to aid him and all others acting for this object, as much as possible. In all available ways, give the people a chance to express their wishes at these elections. Follow forms of law as far as convenient, but at all events get the expression of the largest number of the people possible. All see how such action will connect with, and affect the proclamation of September 22nd. Of course, the men elected should be gentlemen of character willing to swear support to the Constitution, as of old, and known to be above reasonable suspicion of duplicity. (CW 5:462-3, italics added).

NOTE: The italic show that Lincoln rather then issue an Emancipation Proclamation or free the slaves was still willing to allow the Southern States back into the Union. One will find this all the way up to the 1865 visit to Camp Lookout.

At the same time Lincoln was issuing the Emancipation Proclamation he was petitioning his cabinet to negotiate and appropriate funds to force the Blacks else where.

In 1864, Jeff Davis and other Southerner leaders would contemplate outlawing slavery and probably would have if the opportunity had arisen.

God Bless You and The Southern People.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

First a caveat -- there's hardly a point in any of the rest of this answering this, because it almost certainly will go to a "vote" and Southron will find some way to amass the votes to "win" with the same full-of-holes cut-and-paste Neo-Confederate answer he's posted many other times.

BUT, if anyone cares to get some facts about this -- here are some ideas and links.

A nice summary by historian Stephen Oates covers it well:

"We now know that Lincoln issued his proclamation for a combination of reasons: to clarify the status of the fugitive slaves, to solve the Union's manpower woes, to keep Great Britain out of the conflict, to maim and cripple the Confederacy by destroying its labor force, to remove the very thing that had caused the war, and to break the chains of several million oppressed human beings and right America at last with her own ideals."
http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=3&subjectID=1

And consider the following:

1) The Proclamation DID free slaves -- it IMMEDIATELY secured the freedom of many who had fled their masters (they would NOT be returned).... and as soon as the Union army began to take an area its slaves were freed...

2) Anyone who says Lincoln didn't really care about the slaves being free has clearly only read a handful of carefully cherry-picked statements. If you read MORE you'll find he HATED slavery, wanted to stop its spread...

For one example of his belief, stated in many places --
(From the Lincoln-Douglas debates):
"I hold that nothwitstanding all this [the current racial inequalities], there is no reason in the world why the ***** is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. . . In the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of any living man."

3) Lincoln did NOT, however, believe he had the CONSTITUTIONAL authority to eradicate slavery himself.... and long thought the only way all this was doable was to limit the SPREAD of slavery, expecting it to then naturally die out in the South (which was, simply, the Republican party's position)

4) BUT he came to believe it was right and appropriate for the President (NOT Congress), under his "war powers" to take such a step, as a means of weakening the South (that is, as a means of fighting the war!)

5) Lincoln worked in MANY ways to 'get rid of the [ultimate] cause
of the conflict. He used a variety of means both before and after the Proclamation to secure the freedom of slaves in BOTH North and South... from urging border states to accept compensated emancipation to logrolling to push the 13th amendment through Congress

For more on all this see the following:
http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=56&subjectID=3
(this web site has a LOT of good stuff on Lincoln's views and actions in this area from before the Civil War till the end)

See also Michael Vorenberg's book, Final Freedom: The Civil War, The Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment, featured at:
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=18&CRLI=95

and Allen Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery - introduced at
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=1&CRLI=64

Answer 4

Now for an answer from someone that is actually an historian and knows the details.

1. Lincoln wanted to clarify the reasons for fighting the Civil War by making it a war against slavery.

2. By making it a war against slavery it would prevent England from entering the war on the side of the South (since England was opposed to slavery)

3. The E.P. would prevent the border states from slipping into the South since it did NOT free their slaves, but preserved them instead,

4. It gave the North the moral cause to fight and unified the variant forces in the North behind a single banner: Fight to End Slavery in the United States.


And there you have it.

Answer 5

On March 13, 1862, Lincoln forbade all Union Army officers from returning fugitive slaves. On April 10, 1862, Congress declared that the federal government would compensate slave owners who freed their slaves. All slaves in the District of Columbia were freed in this way on April 16, 1862. On June 19, 1862, Congress prohibited slavery in United States territories, thus nullifying the 1857 decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case, which had ruled that Congress was powerless to regulate slavery in the territories.
Lincoln himself had declared in peacetime he had no constitutional authority to free the slaves. The war gave him war powers. Emancipation was still a risky political act because of strong opposition among Copperhead Democrats, and the uncertain impact on loyal border states. 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. The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for the enrollment of freed slaves into the United States military. Nearly 200,000 blacks did join, most of them ex-slaves. This gave the North an additional manpower resource that the South would not emulate until the final months before its defeat.
Lincoln first discussed the proclamation with his cabinet in July 1862, but he felt that he needed a Union victory on the battlefield so it would not look like a desperate effort. 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.
Lincoln used his powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, "as a necessary war measure" as the basis of the proclamation.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which expressly repealed the limits on slavery's spread that had been part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, drew Lincoln back into politics.
Lincoln is well known for ending slavery in the United States. In 1861-62, Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting the war to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. Freeing the slaves became, in late 1862, a war measure to weaken the rebellion by destroying the economic base of its leadership class. Abolitionists criticized Lincoln for his slowness, but on August 22, 1862, Lincoln explained:

“ I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." ... My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to 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

Answer 6

He was probably hoping to inspire slave revolts. Most people today aren't aware of it, but the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the territories of rebellion. The Union slave states, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland, were exempt. If he'd freed the slaves there, it probably would have driven them into the Confederacy. The more Confederate troops tied up putting down slave rebellions were fewer troops the Union forces would face in the field.

Answer 7

From what I know, had he not issued the proclamation, a heavy tax would have been billed to those who owned slaves. So, it was much easier and cheaper to abolish slavery than to keep it going. I am sure Lincoln was also human enough to know it was wrong to begin with.

Answer 8

Think your name rocks, and I don't have any idea.