Why was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation controversial yet necessary at the same time?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation was controversial mainly because many people (including some that favored abolishing slavery) doubted the president had the constitutional authority to free the slaves by presidential order.

But it was seen as necessary--and as an imortant strategy--to undermine the South's ability to resist. By declaring the slaves free, the idea was to give then a stake in the outcome (I.e., if the North one, they'd be free). Some historians have argued it didn't make much difference to the war--but recent scholarship suggest that that may not be the case: we now know arund 400,000 slaves ran away, and many others engaged in covert resistance by not working, deliberately sabotaging things, etc. How much that actually affected the war itself is hard to judge, though.

As for the liegal issue, it became a "mootpoint" with the passage of the 13th ammendment to the Constitution which outlawed slavery.

Answer 2

The real reason or the main reason it was controversial was because southern states felt their federal rights were being taken away.
Secondly the emancipation proclamation was an executive order which is *supposed* to be nothing more than personal orders for the whatever the president wants. for example if the white house was running out of tissues the president could write an executive order to get more..not the best example but thats what came to mind. of course today executive orders have become much greater. A president can order shipment of troops for up to 60 days( which is the limit ) without congresses approval as an executive order.
Getting back to my earlier point, under the emancipation proclamation states would be forced to free their slaves without the consent of congress which is why they decided to secede.

It's odd that the states that felt there rights were being taken away were the ones holding slaves.

Answer 3

The north was weary of the war & horrified at the many deaths of it's troops. Lincoln had to have a ralling & uniting reason to continue the war. He knew that the north wanted to rid the nation of slavery. So he used it as a tool to unite the north & continue the war to it's conclusion. The controversy was in when he made the proclamation, in 1863. The war was to preserve the nation but the north finally just didn't care. They wanted the war over.

Answer 4

People didn't see slaves as people. So those who had slaves wanted to keep them. Yet it was needed because they ARE people. And as long as they were slaves, then nobody could see otherwise!

Answer 5

It did NOT free ALL the slaves...only the ones in states STILL FIGHTING the blue bellies.

Answer 6

are u from Sullivans class