Common Misconceptions/Myths

Proclamation 95 states the area as:





⁠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 the 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, to wit:


Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, 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 forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.



As of 1st January 1863 this is a pretty fair description of the front line. ...

Again, you are wrong. As of 1st January 1863, Baton Rouge was Union held but was not within the areas identified for Louaisa an exempt. The exempt portions of Virginia did not reach the front line - Fairfax, Loudon, Arlington/Alexandria, Manassass, etc were not exempt. None of Arkansas was exempt but Union held Helena. None of Mississippi was exempt but Union held Corinth. None of South Carolina was held but US held Hilton Head. None of North Carolina was exempt but Union held several coastal communities. The numbers of slaves in these areas was over 100,000
 
Again, you are wrong. As of 1st January 1863, Baton Rouge was Union held but was not within the areas identified for Louaisa an exempt. The exempt portions of Virginia did not reach the front line - Fairfax, Loudon, Arlington/Alexandria, Manassass, etc were not exempt. None of Arkansas was exempt but Union held Helena. None of Mississippi was exempt but Union held Corinth. None of South Carolina was held but US held Hilton Head. None of North Carolina was exempt but Union held several coastal communities. The numbers of slaves in these areas was over 100,000
I think you missed some of what I'd said. I mentioned the Carolinas and Virginia out of your examples; Corinth, Helena and Baton Rouge are fair points, of course.
 
I've tried to find a well-sourced number for the number of slaves immediately freed, and the best I could find was about 20,000 in the Carolinas (which of course isn't the whole total). Interestingly almost all maps which show the affected area show Tennessee as affected, while the text of the proclamation makes clear it was not.
 
Shame the EP didn’t include the areas occupied by the Federals or in the States that didn’t secede. Yankees didn’t care if states had slavery, as long as they were Union States. Lincoln’s enticement was stay in the Union and you can keep slavery. Since the Confederate States were fighting for Independence, they declined. Another Myth debunked, it was all about Slavery.
 
What's also interesting to me is that the fact that there were parts of states which were not exempted despite being under Union control means that, at least in principle, other areas under Union control could have been covered under the EP. If the Carolina barrier islands could be covered without exemption, so could southeastern Virginia; I can understand why states like Delaware were exempted, but Maryland was functionally under military occupation early in the ACW to prevent it seceding and that Tennessee had seceded in fact was screamingly obvious. The EP could theoretically have been applied to:

All of Virginia (as having seceded)
All of Tennessee (ditto)
All of Louisiana (ditto)

without any issue about war powers being raised.


That Tennessee was exempted (despite part of it still being in Confederate control) might actually be said to be correcting a common misconception by itself, as it seems rare to mention.
 
Shame the EP didn’t include the areas occupied by the Federals or in the States that didn’t secede. Yankees didn’t care if states had slavery, as long as they were Union States. Lincoln’s enticement was stay in the Union and you can keep slavery. Since the Confederate States were fighting for Independence, they declined. Another Myth debunked, it was all about Slavery.
I think it was "about slavery" but not "all about slavery". There were cultural and economic differences not directly relating to slavery which were also involved, though the cause of those differences is deeply entwined with slavery in their origins - it's just in the same way that the politics of a mountainous area may be different to the politics of a flat coastal plain, because of reasons which relate to their geography but which have become separated in the mind.
 
Shame the EP didn’t include the areas occupied by the Federals or in the States that didn’t secede. Yankees didn’t care if states had slavery, as long as they were Union States. Lincoln’s enticement was stay in the Union and you can keep slavery. Since the Confederate States were fighting for Independence, they declined. Another Myth debunked, it was all about Slavery.

They declined because of the EP and the threat of freeing slaves. No myth, just historical fact.
 
They declined because of the EP and the threat of freeing slaves. No myth, just historical fact.

U B Facts and You Be Wrong!

Lincoln gave the Confederate States 6 months to return to the Union in order to stop the EP from taking effect. Confederates chose fighting for Independence rather than the Federal Safeguards of Protecting Slavery.

Pre War, Lincoln pledged to pass the first proposed 13A which was a Constitutional Amendment to protect Slavery where it existed. Pledged to enforce Fugitive Slave Laws and to end the Northern States Personal Liberty Laws because they were unconstitutional. Lincoln pledged to be a devout little Slave Catcher. The Lower South refused to compromise. Jeff Davis pledged to never negotiate the Confederacies Independence.

The only Territory added post Civil War that became States were Alaska and Hawaii. Alaska was too cold for the Plantation Economy and Hawaii already had Slavery or other forms of it.
 
What's also interesting to me is that the fact that there were parts of states which were not exempted despite being under Union control means that, at least in principle, other areas under Union control could have been covered under the EP. If the Carolina barrier islands could be covered without exemption, so could southeastern Virginia; I can understand why states like Delaware were exempted, but Maryland was functionally under military occupation early in the ACW to prevent it seceding and that Tennessee had seceded in fact was screamingly obvious. The EP could theoretically have been applied to:

All of Virginia (as having seceded)
All of Tennessee (ditto)
All of Louisiana (ditto)

without any issue about war powers being raised.


That Tennessee was exempted (despite part of it still being in Confederate control) might actually be said to be correcting a common misconception by itself, as it seems rare to mention.
Virginia, Louisiana and Tennessee were making attempts at having unionist state governments.
In his preliminary proclamation Lincoln had made congressional representation his criteria for what constituted an area being not in rebellion

In December 1862 two congressional districts in Louisiana elected representatives (Hahn and Flanders). The exempted areas corresponded to their districts

Tennesse had loyal congressmen from a couple of its districts since 1861; Andrew Johnson, the war governor of the state, assured Lincoln he would hold elections in the rest of the state to fill vacant seats so Lincoln exempted the whole state but Johnson failed to follow through and Rosecrans didn’t drive confederate from the state until late in the year, so by the next session of Congress there were no congressmen from Tennessee

At the start of 1863, Virginia has a congressman representing the southeastern counties so that area was exempted
 
Shame the EP didn’t include the areas occupied by the Federals or in the States that didn’t secede. Yankees didn’t care if states had slavery, as long as they were Union States. Lincoln’s enticement was stay in the Union and you can keep slavery. Since the Confederate States were fighting for Independence, they declined. Another Myth debunked, it was all about Slavery.

They declined because of the EP and the threat of freeing slaves. No myth, just historical fact.
U B Facts and You Be Wrong!

Lincoln gave the Confederate States 6 months to return to the Union in order to stop the EP from taking effect. Confederates chose fighting for Independence rather than the Federal Safeguards of Protecting Slavery.

Pre War, Lincoln pledged to pass the first proposed 13A which was a Constitutional Amendment to protect Slavery where it existed. Pledged to enforce Fugitive Slave Laws and to end the Northern States Personal Liberty Laws because they were unconstitutional. Lincoln pledged to be a devout little Slave Catcher. The Lower South refused to compromise. Jeff Davis pledged to never negotiate the Confederacies Independence.

The only Territory added post Civil War that became States were Alaska and Hawaii. Alaska was too cold for the Plantation Economy and Hawaii already had Slavery or other forms of it.
@uaskme ,

I see what you believe in the above, but let's try and see the other side's issue. Why the fight for independence? To ensure the safety of slavery. The Confederates fought on even with the idea of slavery being "safe" knew that the institution would be heading towards extinction in a Union where Southern states were surrounded by Free States.

As for the prior 13th Amendment, Lincoln and others knew it offered nothing more than what was already in existence, that the North had no intention of interfering with slavery where it existed. But you forget it was the South that rejected the amendment because they knew slavery would still be under threat with no slaves in the federal territories and again being surrounded by Free States.

Slavery dragged the Confederacy to it's doom because it firmly linked it's independence to the institution. The idea of free negroes on the same political and social standing as a white man terrified Southern whites. Lincoln cannot be a scapegoat for a regions fears over the abolishment of slavery.

And yes, Davis and the Lower South refused to compromise, even to the point of freeing slaves to serve as soldiers and look where it got them.

Unionblue
 
As for the prior 13th Amendment, Lincoln and others knew it offered nothing more than what was already in existence, that the North had no intention of interfering with slavery where it existed. But you forget it was the South that rejected the amendment ...
If you look at the votes in Congress, the northern Republicans rejected it, whereas northern Democrats and the south (Nc, va, Tn, ky, mo, ar) voted for it
 
If you look at the votes in Congress, the northern Republicans rejected it, whereas northern Democrats and the south (Nc, va, Tn, ky, mo, ar) voted for it
The 13th Amendment was passed on 31 January, 1865, before the war ended. Only two Northern states rejected it: New Jersey and Delaware, and they ratified it after first rejecting it. All other Northern states ratified it in 1865 with Iowa adding it's Aye vote in 1866. To say Northern republicans rejected it is grossly misleading. The border state of Kentucky first rejected it., but like NJ and DE later voted in favor. No Confederates voted in favor of it and could not have. Unionist governments in the defeated South however, did.
The single exception was Texas who did not vote until well after Wars end.
 
The 13th Amendment was passed on 31 January, 1865, before the war ended. Only two Northern states rejected it: New Jersey and Delaware, and they ratified it after first rejecting it. All other Northern states ratified it in 1865 with Iowa adding it's Aye vote in 1866. To say Northern republicans rejected it is grossly misleading. The border state of Kentucky first rejected it., but like NJ and DE later voted in favor. No Confederates voted in favor of it and could not have. Unionist governments in the defeated South however, did.
The single exception was Texas who did not vote until well after Wars end.

Passed, yes (when the war was nearly over) BUT not ratified until December 1865 (after the war was over) as mentioned by @Saphroneth in Post #803 as repeated below:

Technically it abolished slavery on December 18 of that year - you can't skip the ratification and proclamation steps.
 
Passed, yes (when the war was nearly over) BUT not ratified until December 1865 (after the war was over) as mentioned by @Saphroneth in Post #803 as repeated below:

Slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865 and the end of the War except in Texas, was on April 2, 1866.

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas by proclamations of the 15th and 19th of April, 1861, the President of the United States, in virtue of the power vested in him by the Constitution and the laws, declared that the laws of the United States were opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law; and

Whereas by another proclamation, made on the 16th day of August, in the same year, in pursuance of an act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Mountains and of such other parts of that State and the other States before named as might maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the Constitution or might be from time to time occupied and controlled by forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of insurgents) were declared to be in a state of insurrection against the United States; and

Whereas by another proclamation, of the 1st day of July, 1862, issued in pursuance of an act of Congress approved June 7, in the same year, the insurrection was declared to be still existing in the States aforesaid, with the exception of certain specified counties in the State of Virginia; and

Whereas by another proclamation, made on the 2d ,day of April, 1863, in pursuance of the act of Congress of July 13, 1861, the exceptions named in the proclamation of August 16, 1861, were revoked and the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties of Virginia designated as West Virginia and the ports of New Orleans, Key West, Port Royal, and Beaufort, in North Carolina) were declared to be still in a state of insurrection against the United States; and

Whereas the House of Representatives, on the 22d day of July, 1861, adopted a resolution in the words following, namely:

Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States , That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the dis-unionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the constitutional Government and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation. nor purpose of overthrowing interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.

And whereas the Senate of the United States, on the 25th day of July. 1861, adopted a resolution in the words following, to wit:

Resolved , That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the constitutional Government and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not prosecuted upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.

And whereas these resolutions, though not joint or concurrent in form, are substantially identical, and as such may be regarded as having expressed the sense of Congress upon the subject to which they relate; and

Whereas by my proclamation of the 13th day of June last the insurrection in the State of Tennessee was declared to have been suppressed, the authority of the United States therein to be undisputed, and such United States officers as had been duly commissioned to be in the undisturbed exercise of their official functions; and

Whereas there now exists no organized armed resistance of misguided citizens or others to the authority of the United States in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, and the laws can be sustained and enforced therein by the proper civil authority, State or Federal, and the people of said States are well and loyally disposed and have conformed or will conform in their legislation to the condition of affairs growing out of the amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting slavery within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States; and

Whereas, in view of the before-recited premises, it is the manifest determination of the American people that no State of its own will has the right or the power to go out of, or separate itself from, or be separated from, the American Union, and that therefore each State ought to remain and constitute an integral part of the United States; and

Whereas the people of the several before-mentioned States have, in the manner aforesaid, given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in this sovereign and important resolution of national unity; and

Whereas it is believed to be a fundamental principle of government that people who have revolted and who have been overcome and subdued must either be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends or else they must be held by absolute military power or devastated so as to prevent them from ever again doing harm as enemies, which last-named policy is abhorrent to humanity and to freedom; and

Whereas the Constitution of the United States provides for constituent communities only as States, and not as Territories, dependencies, provinces, or protectorates; and

Whereas such constituent States must necessarily be, and by the Constitution and laws of the United States are, made equals and placed upon a like footing as to political rights, immunities, dignity, and power with the several States with which they are united; and

Whereas the observance of political equality, as a principle of right and justice, is well calculated to encourage the people of the aforesaid States to be and become more and more constant and persevering in their renewed allegiance; and

Whereas standing armies, military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus are in time of peace dangerous to public liberty, incompatible with the individual rights of the citizen, contrary to the genius and spirit of our free institutions, and exhaustive of the national resources, and ought not, therefore, to be sanctioned or allowed except in cases of actual necessity for repelling invasion or suppressing insurrection or rebellion; and

Whereas the policy of the Government of the United States from the beginning of the insurrection to its overthrow and final suppression has been in conformity with the principles herein set forth and enumerated:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end and is henceforth to be so regarded.

In testimony 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 2d day of April, A. D. 1866, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninetieth.

ANDREW JOHNSON.
By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
 
Slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865 and the end of the War except in Texas, was on April 2, 1866.

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas by proclamations of the 15th and 19th of April, 1861, the President of the United States, in virtue of the power vested in him by the Constitution and the laws, declared that the laws of the United States were opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law; and

Whereas by another proclamation, made on the 16th day of August, in the same year, in pursuance of an act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Mountains and of such other parts of that State and the other States before named as might maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the Constitution or might be from time to time occupied and controlled by forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of insurgents) were declared to be in a state of insurrection against the United States; and

Whereas by another proclamation, of the 1st day of July, 1862, issued in pursuance of an act of Congress approved June 7, in the same year, the insurrection was declared to be still existing in the States aforesaid, with the exception of certain specified counties in the State of Virginia; and

Whereas by another proclamation, made on the 2d ,day of April, 1863, in pursuance of the act of Congress of July 13, 1861, the exceptions named in the proclamation of August 16, 1861, were revoked and the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties of Virginia designated as West Virginia and the ports of New Orleans, Key West, Port Royal, and Beaufort, in North Carolina) were declared to be still in a state of insurrection against the United States; and

Whereas the House of Representatives, on the 22d day of July, 1861, adopted a resolution in the words following, namely:

Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States , That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the dis-unionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the constitutional Government and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation. nor purpose of overthrowing interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.

And whereas the Senate of the United States, on the 25th day of July. 1861, adopted a resolution in the words following, to wit:

Resolved , That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the constitutional Government and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not prosecuted upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.

And whereas these resolutions, though not joint or concurrent in form, are substantially identical, and as such may be regarded as having expressed the sense of Congress upon the subject to which they relate; and

Whereas by my proclamation of the 13th day of June last the insurrection in the State of Tennessee was declared to have been suppressed, the authority of the United States therein to be undisputed, and such United States officers as had been duly commissioned to be in the undisturbed exercise of their official functions; and

Whereas there now exists no organized armed resistance of misguided citizens or others to the authority of the United States in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, and the laws can be sustained and enforced therein by the proper civil authority, State or Federal, and the people of said States are well and loyally disposed and have conformed or will conform in their legislation to the condition of affairs growing out of the amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting slavery within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States; and

Whereas, in view of the before-recited premises, it is the manifest determination of the American people that no State of its own will has the right or the power to go out of, or separate itself from, or be separated from, the American Union, and that therefore each State ought to remain and constitute an integral part of the United States; and

Whereas the people of the several before-mentioned States have, in the manner aforesaid, given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in this sovereign and important resolution of national unity; and

Whereas it is believed to be a fundamental principle of government that people who have revolted and who have been overcome and subdued must either be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends or else they must be held by absolute military power or devastated so as to prevent them from ever again doing harm as enemies, which last-named policy is abhorrent to humanity and to freedom; and

Whereas the Constitution of the United States provides for constituent communities only as States, and not as Territories, dependencies, provinces, or protectorates; and

Whereas such constituent States must necessarily be, and by the Constitution and laws of the United States are, made equals and placed upon a like footing as to political rights, immunities, dignity, and power with the several States with which they are united; and

Whereas the observance of political equality, as a principle of right and justice, is well calculated to encourage the people of the aforesaid States to be and become more and more constant and persevering in their renewed allegiance; and

Whereas standing armies, military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus are in time of peace dangerous to public liberty, incompatible with the individual rights of the citizen, contrary to the genius and spirit of our free institutions, and exhaustive of the national resources, and ought not, therefore, to be sanctioned or allowed except in cases of actual necessity for repelling invasion or suppressing insurrection or rebellion; and

Whereas the policy of the Government of the United States from the beginning of the insurrection to its overthrow and final suppression has been in conformity with the principles herein set forth and enumerated:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end and is henceforth to be so regarded.

In testimony 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 2d day of April, A. D. 1866, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninetieth.

ANDREW JOHNSON.
By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.

There you go then, even later than I had thought (1866).
 
The 13th Amendment was passed on 31 January, 1865, before the war ended. Only two Northern states rejected it: New Jersey and Delaware, and they ratified it after first rejecting it. All other Northern states ratified it in 1865 with Iowa adding it's Aye vote in 1866. To say Northern republicans rejected it is grossly misleading. The border state of Kentucky first rejected it., but like NJ and DE later voted in favor. No Confederates voted in favor of it and could not have. Unionist governments in the defeated South however, did.
The single exception was Texas who did not vote until well after Wars end.
True, but I understood that was I was responding to was discussion of the proposed amendment that passed congress in 1861 and was never ratified
 
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