Round 786

[ole]

New thread here, in which our new guys can start the war over again.

I'll open with Lincoln's failure to free all slaves. It's been said before, but this thread might help focus it.

The Emancipation Proclamation (henceforth to be EP), was a war power act of the President. He could not constitutionally free slaves in Delaware or New Jersey -- the two Union states in which there were still a few. He did not want to stir the pot in Kentucky and Missouri and he didn't have to. The EP was designed to cripple the Confederacy when parts of it came under Union control.

Before the EP, there was a bit of a problem in compensating slaves for labor on Union facilities. Freemen were paid, slaveowners were paid for the use of their slaves. In between was the determination of who was to be paid. The EP fixed that question. Where the US army was, there were no slaves. There was no longer the question of who this black man belonged to. In the eyes of the US military, he was free and would earn some sort of recompense for his labor.

I will grant that sometimes his pay was little more than food and maybe a crude shelter, but for the most part, the black laborer was treated as a free man.

Any more on Lincoln's usurpation of the Constitution?
Ole

[samgrant]

Ole, you left out Maryland, a state not in rebellion (like new Jersey and Delaware); and Tennessee, a state in rebellion, but substantially under control of the Federal government (On Feb. 22, 1862, the civil government of the state was suspended and martial law was established by General Grant. Andrew Johnson was appointed military governor by President Lincoln on March 3 of the same year).

The EP also did not apply to parts of states in rebellion, but under federal control, as the exceptions indicate for parts of Virginia and Louisiana.

Kentucky and Missouri were slave states, but had not joined the Confederacy (The Confederacy admitted them but they never controlled these states and the pro-Confederate state governments were soon in exile).

Hope mixing in that mud clarifies the issue.


January 1, 1863
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, towit:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”

Now, therefore 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 authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, towit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Johns, St. Charles, St. James[,] Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New-Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina, and Virginia, (except the fortyeight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth-City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk & Portsmouth [) ]; and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

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.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[ole]

Silly me. Forgot to include the other areas exempted. The thing is, Lincoln couldn't constitutionally free slaves. He could only do it as CnC of the army. The point remains -- Lincoln did not free slaves with the EP. He made it possible for his armies to remove laborers from the assets of the confederacy.
Ole

[samgrant]

Ole, nobody will know by the title of your thread what it is about. Why don't you just re-title it?

(or maybe I am extremely dense, but "Round 786" doesn't give me a clue.)

[ole]

It refers to the approximate number of times we've gone over the same ground. With the size and activity of this board, I can't really expect our newer members to read up on what's been covered over and over again in the last 5 years. I read all the old threads, but that was 3 years and about 1000 posts ago.

The thread can die and expire at the bottom of the page. Makes me no nevermind.
Ole

[OpnDownfall]

It is surprising how many posters have difficulty differentiating between the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Apparently it is Necessary to keeping reminding some that there is a difference, in means and intent.

[ole]

Hadn't quite thought of it that way.
, OD. Good of you to point it out.