13th amendment/ Emancipation Proclamation (Slavery)?

Question

Why was the 13th amendment needed when we had the Emancipation Proclamation?
or
Why did we need the 13th amendment if we had the Emancipation Proclamation?

could anyone help me out....

THX

Answer 1

http://members.tripod.com/~greatamericanhistory/gr02011.htm
read carefully this


john

Answer 2

The Emancipation Proclamation was an act Lincoln undertook by virtue of his WAR powers -- that is, in order to weaken the other side (taking away one of its major resources) to win the war.

But Lincoln feared that the Proclamation would be legally challenged in court (since his authority to do this was contested by some, and not spelled out in the Constitution). He was especially concerned that after the war was OVER the argument would be made that it no longer applied, and people could then be re-enslaved.

(This, by the way, is why the document is so carefully worded. Lincoln wanted to provide the courts, esp. the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Taney [of Dred Scott fame] ANY basis for overturning it. )

So, from the time he issued the final Proclamation (Jan 1, 1863) he sought strong legal ways to make sure this emancipation "stuck". The method that was agreed on was a Constitutional amendment that, once passed, could (by definition!) NOT be overturned as "unconstitutional" or "no longer in effect".
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It IS true, as some have said, that the 13th amendment actually brought about the freedom of a group of slaves -- those in areas that had not been in rebellion when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Actually, though MOST of the border states that stayed in the Union had by this time emancipated their slaves themselves. The only exception was Kentucky... so a small group of slaves in Kentucky were freed by the amendment.

Meanwhile, as the Union army had taken over Southern territory ALL those slaves had been freed. (The final state to be affected was Texas. News of the Proclamation arrived there on Jun3 19, 1965.. which has since been celebrated, often under the name "Juneteenth".)

I say this because there are those who act as if the Emancipation Proclamation "didn't really free anyone" and that it was "just propaganda or words". But the Proclamation was backed up with the whole executive power of the armed forces so that, as they advanced, the Proclamation was put into effect. So, contrary to what Elizabeth wrote, the Proclamation WAS enforced, and by June 1865 had been FULLY enforced.

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To see how Lincoln based the Emancipation Proclamation on his "war powers", consider the following parts of that document:

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 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. . . And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons."
http://www.nps.gov/ncro/anti/emancipation.html

Answer 3

The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the states currently in rebellion against the Union - where, of course, it wasn't enforced because they were IN REBELLION. I also believe it would have been a Presidential "executive order," overturnable by a simple act of Congress.

The 13th Amendment did not just free existing slaves, it abolished the practice of slavery in the entire country. It was also a constitutional amendment, much harder to repeal.

Answer 4

The 13th amendment declared that slavery wasnt aloud in the United States. The Emancipationm Proclomation declared that slavery was illegal in the states that were rebelling during the Civil War. So the Emancipation Proclomation only mattered in the South, and it didnt even matyter at all anymore once the Civil War was over. So we made the 13th Amendment.

Answer 5

The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves after it was singed in the southern states there were still slaves in the northern states it also didnt give the blacks rights.

Answer 6

One is the church. The other the state.