The Significance of the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil War
The Emancipation Proclamation was very significant to the Civil War because Abraham Lincoln brought it up as a war tactic to make the Confederates vulnerable and when it was passed it had a very huge effect on the direction the war was heading and what was happening. He believed that if the slaves of the Southern states were free then the Confederates could not keep them for themselves so that they could do their work for them or go into war for them therefore their army would be weaker and it would limit their power which would get in their way of beating the other side. The Confederates efforts would deteriorate and they likely would not be able to beat the other side.
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Abraham Lincoln initially wanted to free slaves from the places where Confederacy resided but had to rethink his decision because that would be unfair to the African Americans who were still slaves. Because of the president’s quick thinking and smart planning such came out of the whole ordeal. Things were getting out of hand and were going from bad to worse therefore something had to be done to prevent utter chaos so the president had to step up because it was his duty to lead the United States in the right direction. Drafting the Emancipation Proclamation was an idea that was a last resort because Lincoln did not want to lose the war. As the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery along the way more soldiers were added to the President’s army which he was the commander in chief of which would lead to victory. In the beginning of the Civil War the president viewed it as a way to make the Union a constant and it was not for freeing the slaves even though he clearly did not like the thought of slavery or better yet slavery itself but he was a noble man who wanted to abide by the rules of the Constitution. He also had his reasons for not doing anything sooner which was that he did not want the state's that were pro slavery to back out from supporting the Union. Overall the Emancipation had a huge significance towards the Civil
The most controversial document in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was the Emancipation Proclamation. It was met with both hostility and jubilation by the North. The proclamation declares that everybody that was held as slaves within the rebellious states,the southern states in rebellion, were going to be free. Most people do not know that it was written twice.
It allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 18. Why was the Emancipation Proclamation significant?
Lincoln wanted to help the South rejoin the Union. His primary concern was what was best for the Union. The South needed to rejoin the Union on his terms. Johnson had once talked tough against southern farmers, he allied himself with ex-Confederate leaders, and he forgave them when they appealed for pardons. This delighted southerners, of course,
The civil war became a different war as the gleaming sun set over the bloody fields of Antietam. After the union had partially won the battle, Abraham Lincoln changed the war as he wrote one of the most controversial, and most crucial documents in American history: the Emancipation Proclamation (Dudley 166). Mr. Lincoln’s preliminary proclamation declared that on January 1, 1863, all slaves remaining in areas of the South “in rebellion would be declared then, thenceforward, and forever free” (Dudley 167). The Emancipation Proclamation paved the way to the abolition of slavery, and is by far one of the most important accomplishments made in history.
He valued the preservation of the Union more than ending the institution of slavery. The president set his goal and used any means necessary to win the war. Emancipation was a convenient consequence of this goal, because abolishing slavery weakened the South and made a legal precedent for slavery. Lincoln did not want to agree with the justifications of slavery, so emancipation as a tool to win the war would benefit both of his desires for uniting a slave free nation. Although, Lincoln naturally opposed slavery and would be happy with the outcome of the war, he would have keep slavery in some states if it meant saving the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most well known speeches in US history, due to its influence on the views of African American slaves. However Lincoln, the president at the time, originally did not have a side to the argument of the equal treatment of the African American race. This view would soon start to slowly change with the start of the Civil War. With the coming of the civil war, the Union needed soldiers due to the fact that they were losing many battles, and the African American males were one of the only choices. The other reason would be that allowing slaves to be free in the North would cause a revolt from those that were enslaved in the south.
While the Emancipation Proclamation did not have much of an actual effect, it stood for a deep symbolic importance. The war's moral purpose changed as it went to fighting for the freedom of slaves, due to the Proclamation. Freed blacks supported the Proclamation because they could now join the Union army to fight and help put a end to slavery which benefited Lincoln. The Democrats argued that it would cause the war to be much more worst and last longer because it would anger the South. Although Union soldiers did not have much concern for African Americans or abolitionists, they also supported the Proclamation since they believed it was the way to reunite the nation.
Once the Civil War began, President Lincoln's ultimate goal was the restoration of the Union. However, the Union was keeping escaped slaves instead of returning them (which caused Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation). This measure opened the problem of what to do with slaves that had been captured by the Union. Eventually, the War ended, and the northern states won. Without President Lincoln's Proclamation, the outcome may have looked different You've probably guessed it by now - Lincoln proposed the 13th amendment himself!
The election of President Lincoln had a huge affect on the civil war. Lincoln made numerous attempts to free slaves and to end the civil war. All of his attempts had helped in ways to end the civil war. His attempts included of the 13th amendment, the Emancipation Proclamation, his hard work on keeping the United States as one, and etc. Also because of the election of president Lincoln the 14th and 15th amendment was later on made as one of the Civil War Amendments.
Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation in 1863 declared “all persons held as slaves…shall be free,” which granted Black Americans a necessity they had not had before, freedom. This significantly improved Black American’s lives as it meant they were able to marry, own property and move freely between states. This was a definite improvement as Black Americans had not had this opportunity before. Without the President Lincoln having issued the proclamation, this would not have been put into effect.
Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation on January 1st, 1863, for several reasons. Blacks were leaving the plantations and the institution of slavery was falling apart. Another factor was the war was not going well for the Union since the confederates were great soldiers. Their troops had physical courage on the battlefield, their commander was very skilled, and the confederated were inferior in military technology. In addition, the British were taking steps to help support the Confederacy.
The Emancipation Proclamation is perhaps the most misunderstood document that has shaped American history. Contradictory to the legend, Abraham Lincoln did not simply free four million slaves with a stroke of his pen. The proclamation barely ensured the eventual death of slavery, the matter left as a possibility - assuming the Union won the war. In reality, the Emancipation Proclamation was no more than an act of propaganda, issued for the purpose of weakening the Confederacy and assuring Union victory. July 1862, Congress established 2 laws based on the premise of weakening the Confederacy.
The Emancipation Proclamation also ordered that suitable people among those freed could now be enrolled into paid service of United States ' forces, and ordered the Union Army to "recognize and maintain the freedom of" the former slaves. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners in any way, did not make slavery illegal and did not grant any citizenship to the former slaves. It only made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal as an addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. Around 20,000 to 50,000 slaves in the southern regions where the rebellion already had been subdued were immediately emancipated. The proclamation could not be enforced in the areas still under rebellion, but when the Union Army took control of Confederate regions, The Proclamation provided the legal support framework for freeing about more than 3 million slaves in those southern regions.
When the Confederacy did not yield, Lincoln put the final Emancipation Proclamation into effect. After it was put in effect with the civil war was concluded, Lincoln could not have been prouder of enacting the order. “Heralded as the savior of the Union, President Lincoln actually considered the Emancipation Proclamation to be the most important aspect of his legacy. “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper,” he declared. “If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my
Somebody once remarked, “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent” (“Abraham Lincoln Quotes"). At the initial view, the Civil War was going to be won by the South. Nonetheless, all that changed when Abraham Lincoln constructed the Emancipation Proclamation because it did not solely free slaves, it further altered antiquity for the salutary and assisted the North in the war, which led to their triumph. The Emancipation Proclamation was Abraham Lincoln’s greatest achievement as president.