We're very glad to have everyone here today at Gettysburg National Military Park.
My name is Dan Vermilya, I'm a park ranger here, and it is very nice to be here with
you again for our annual winter lecture series, we look forward to these lectures a lot every
year, they are the start of our yearlong interpretive programming, I always enjoy getting the chance
to come and talk for the lecture series, and our theme for this year is myths and controversies
of the Civil War which when you stop and think about it there is a lot there.
The Civil War is probably the biggest event in American history it is a defining event
in American history in a lot of different ways there is lots of lore and lots of controversies
and in digging through some of these topics just doing some online searches to see what
some online sites said about the myths and controversies of the war one thing that I
kept seeing come up time and time again was the Emancipation Proclamation and it's a
topic that isn't talked about as much as it should be in some ways it's a topic that's
misunderstood in other ways there's a lot of questions and misconceptions out there
about this topic so that is what we're going to be talking about today Many question whether
the Emancipation Proclamation actually did anything, whether it actually freed any slaves,
and we will be talking about a lot of these things in detail I just want to run through
a few of these up front the Proclamation didn't apply to Border States it only impacted certain
parts of the country and they were claiming the proclamation had no jurisdiction over
them they were claiming they were a separate country at the time so a lot of people say
that the Emancipation Proclamation was really just a piece of paper that didn't do anything
that it didn't free any slaves Others say that Lincoln didn't really care about slavery
he just issued the proclamation as a propaganda measure meaning to deter Europe from intervening
or recognizing the South during the Civil War others say that the proclamation was unconstitutional
and outside of the president's war powers others still say that the proclamation subverted
the real cause of the Civil War subverting it and hijacking it into something different
altogether now the Emancipation Proclamation as we will find is a very complex document,
it is a very complex situation, and if you actually take the time to sit down and read
it it doesn't read like Lincoln's other documents, you don't want to sit down and
read the Emancipation Proclamation like you might want to the Lincoln-Douglas debates
or of course the famous Gettysburg Address, and historian Richard Hofstadter said in 1948
the Emancipation Proclamation "had all the moral grandeur of a bill of lading," which
is essentially a receipt from a transaction, its saying it is the same as the receipt you
get from Dunkin Donuts, it has all that moral power to it, so it's a confusing document,
lots of quotes on it out there, lots of takes on it out there, Jefferson Davis called it
"the most execrable measure in the history of guilty man," while Horace Greely said
of it, "it was the beginning of the end of the rebellion, the beginning of a new life
for the nation", now we are very familiar with Lincoln and those words "the new birth
of freedom" given at the Gettysburg Address, and yet the Gettysburg Address was a speech,
it was a rhetorical explanation of the things that were going on at that time, the Gettysburg
Address didn't free a single slave, it was Lincoln trying to explain what was going on
in the United States, it was in many ways the rhetorical flourish for the Emancipation
Proclamation given many months after he had issued that famous document, and it is understood
as a part of a larger story this and the Emancipation Proclamation must be understood together we
might say that the Emancipation Proclamation was the prose that gave some of the substance
to the Gettysburg Address but Lincoln's actual work of advancing the cause of freedom
was the Emancipation Proclamation and it was part of a much larger story Lincoln himself
said of the Emancipation Proclamation, "It was the central act of my administration and
the great event of the nineteenth century" so how do we understand this as a part of
a larger story there is a lot of context we have to talk about we're going to talk about
a lot of things that aren't directly related to the document but we have to build the puzzle
to understand where this fits in the larger story.
Slavery and the United States, America's original sin, with the founding of the country
some hoped that it would die out gradually but as we see here in this map as the decades
passed and America grew larger slavery grew larger with it so much so that by 1860 on
the eve of the American Civil War there were four million slaves in the American south
which according to historian James Oakes, "with four million slaves in 1860 the American
South was by far the largest slave society in the world, possibly the largest in the
history of the world" at the height of the Roman Empire there had been around 2 million
slaves in the Italian Peninsula, four million in the American south, showing that this is
such a deeply rooted institution, such a powerful institution in the American South, this is
no simple problem that needs fixing of course with slaver as the original sin of the country
many ask was this a country founded in freedom, our founding documents speak of it only tangentially
of course the Declaration declaring all men are created equal of course it is written
by Thomas Jefferson a slave holder with many other slave holders involved with the crafting
of the United States voted for by the Continental Congress, many members of which were also
slave holders the Constitution doesn't mention slavery specifically by name, but it deals
with it in several ways with several different clauses touching on it, the three fifths clause
the fugitive slave clause the banning of the slave trade clause but it is otherwise silent
on slavery leaving many to believe that slavery would be a state issue in the early years
of the republic as the country grew and advanced tensions over slavery intensified I know for
some of you this might be very familiar history but it is worth covering to understand the
approach that Lincoln would take to this subject itself, as the country grew the biggest contention
was should slavery grow with it and how it should grow the Missouri Compromise limited
slavery's growth to south of the 36 30 line blocking it north of that line while admitting
Missouri as a slave state in 1820, with the Mexican War came new lands and the Compromise
of 1850 and all of this was a tenuously held compromise keeping the country together but
the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 essentially opened up many of the territories of the United
States to slavery believing that if settlers in those territories voted for it then they
could have slavery which did a lot to unsettle the compromise that had very thinly held the
country together for so long in the midst of this you have abolitionists in the north
developing two different strategies to deal with the problem of slavery the gradual approach
believing that the constitution did not empower the government to abolish slavery in the states
where it already existed but it could limit its spread abolitionists maintained through
this that there was no right of property in slaves and this is perhaps best laid out by
Charles Sumner in his August 1852 Freedom National speech where he said "In all national
territories slavery will be impossible on the high seas under the national flag slavery
will be impossible in the District of Columbia slavery will instantly cease Congress can
give no sanction to slavery in the admission of new slave states nowhere in the Constitution
can the nation by legislation or by other means support slavery or the right to hold
property in man" he is saying here that we can't take it out of the states in the
South where it existed but we can certainly stop it and cordon off those states, there
were also others chief among them John Quincy Adams the former president begin to lay out
an argument that there was a more direct path for emancipation rather than limiting slavery's
growth and hoping it will gradually die out and that was military emancipation John Quincy
Adams is discussing this in the 1830s, three decades before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
he said this power of the president under his authority as commander in chief to in
a time of rebellion in the American south declare slaves emancipated this power is tremendous
it is strictly constitutional these are two competing theories that are going to be pursued
simultaneously during the war itself but it is amidst this that Abraham Lincoln emerges
as a political figure on the national scene this "Backwoods Jupiter" which of all
the quotes describing Abraham Lincoln this might be my favorite one, because it gives
you the images of his Kentucky twang and at times crude sense of humor yet still wielding
tremendous power and being a tremendous statesman Lincoln of course was a brilliant legal mind
a brilliant lawyer in so many ways and it was said that in a legal case he could understand
that there were seven key points, but he could concede the first six knowing that without
the seventh the first six were irrelevant he could look at an issue and understand it
in its complexity and be able to understand what points were crucial to defend and what
points were not and it is that keen legal mind that Lincoln will deploy as president
in dealing with many issues chief among them slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation
and for the argument that Lincoln didn't really care much about slavery and that he
didn't think it was a moral wrong well what is Lincoln himself actually saying about this
institution in the 1850s well in response to the Kansas Nebraska Act which opened up
the territories to the expansion of slavery through popular sovereignty that is an event
that really revives Lincoln's political career and helps to begin his path toward
the presidency even though it was several years out, talking about how the republican
robe was soiled by the stain of slavery, this helped him to launch into the famous 1858
senate race with Senator Stephen Douglas where he said of this indifference toward slavery
"this declared indifference but as I must think covert the real zeal for the spread
of slavery I cannot but hate.
I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself.
I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world
and enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites
causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity" Lincoln said in October of
1858 "now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country that contemplates
slavery as a moral, social, and political evil" and throughout these famous Senate
debates and if you've never read them I would recommend you do so because it is tremendous
oratory and Lincoln was slowly building a case that slavery was morally wrong and that
people did not have a right to do something that was morally wrong and of course through
these debates he emerges as a larger national figure becomes the Republican nominee for
president in 1860 wins a highly contentious election without a single southern electoral
vote after Lincoln's election southern states begin seceding the first seven of them secede
and then after the war begins at Fort Sumter and Lincoln calls for thousands of troops
to put down this rebellion four more of them secede so now it is 1861 and Abraham Lincoln
believing slavery to be morally wrong is the president of the United States and the country
is pulling itself a part what is he going to do?
What to do about slavery early on in the war well Lincoln has a very big dilemma here personally
he believes slavery to be a great moral evil as we heard but his oath is to uphold the
constitution and keep the Union together he is personally opposed to slavery but he can't
do anything to jeopardize losing the Border States he has to try to keep this country
together as best as he can but events will eventually force Lincoln's hand events will
carry the country further along down the road toward emancipation and one of the first of
these events has to do with some of the generals serving underneath President Lincoln especially
this incredibly handsome gentleman here in the center of the screen "The Beast" Ben
Butler commanded Fortress Monroe in Virginia in May 1861 some escaped slaves made their
way to Butler's fort when asked to return the slaves to their owners Butler said no
he said that because the southern states had seceded including Virginia the fugitive slave
laws no longer applied they were no longer protected under those laws Butler wrote to
the war department for approval of his actions and approval was granted using the term contraband
to describe these slaves who had made their way toward Union lines in times of war historically
it has been considered allowable to seize enemy property in this case with the South
of course claiming slaves were their property they were liable of course to seizure and
Butler's decision stood and it began to not necessarily define US army policy but
it grew in many ways of course it didn't apply at all to the Border States Maryland
Kentucky Missouri Delaware those slave states that were still loyal to the Union and were
of course still protected by the laws of the United States and indeed in response to this
Secretary of War Simon Cameron noted in regards to this new contraband policy to keep runaway
slaves "the question of their final disposition will be reserved for further determination"
this basically saying that this was a temporary thing and not any sort of lasting arrangement,
accepting these runaway slaves as contraband other generals acted along these lines or
similar to these lines John Fremont in Missouri in 1861 issued a proclamation declaring military
emancipation in Missouri catching many including President Lincoln off guard Lincoln being
in an awkward place he can't lose Missouri as a key Border State he fears this will push
Missouri toward the Confederacy so he orders Fremont to rescind this military proclamation
and in a similar fashion David Hunter in South Carolina he also issued an edict of emancipation
General Orders Number 11 in May 1862 declaring martial law and emancipation in several southern
states this too was rescinded by President Lincoln again Lincoln is caught in the middle
here personally he is opposed to slavery but he can't risk losing the Border
States he has to keep the country together as best as he can so while generals in the
field are toying with military emancipation in its various forms there are other efforts
to continue policies of gradual abolition the same idea that had begun years before
by abolitionists prior to the start of the Civil War and its summed up in a story that
Lincoln told to his friend Wendell Philips in early 1862 of an Irishman going to a bar
and being denied a drink because it wasn't medicinal and upon being denied the Irishman
asked if the bartender could simply slip some alcohol in a drink unbeknownst to himself
gradually as a means of getting what he wanted and it is a similar idea gradually slipping
in emancipation measures into national policies that will continue to limit the spread and
the survival of slavery among these Congress declares that the military will not enforce
fugitive slave laws during the war giving a Congressional stamp of approval to what
General Ben Butler had already been doing in Virginia there is a policy of compensated
emancipation that is being proposed the abolition of slavery in Washington DC that occurs in
April 1862 where over one million dollars was set aside to pay slave owners for their
slaves up to 300 dollars per slave and it offered these slaves 100 dollars if they relocated
to foreign lands such as Haiti or Liberia and this occurred on April 16 1862 a day that
is still celebrated as emancipation day in Washington DC these policies such as compensated
emancipation were a means of offering an olive branch to some slave owners especially in
Border States saying this war is so expensive and so costly so it would be cheaper if we
simply paid to liberate and emancipate your slaves one state where Lincoln specifically
proposed this was Delaware and as you can imagine the slave holders said no thank you
we don't accept this offer Lincoln is also pursuing ideas of colonization that is sending
freed slaves elsewhere getting them out of the United States helping to deal with the
fears of races intermixing and the social consequences of emancipation and abolishing
slavery and of course amidst all this there are those problems with those key pesky Border
States Lincoln understands these issues with the Borders States all too well being from
Kentucky he realized as he said I hope to have God on our side but we must have Kentucky
he knows that if he loses these states its going to be very bad for the Union
Congress is also taking key measures known as the famous Confiscation Acts the first
Confiscation act comes in the summer of 1862 in the month of August it authorizes the confiscation
of Any Confederate property being used to support the rebellion and here property includes
slaves as slave labor was being employed by Confederates in many different ways not just
on the home front but in some regards helping to maintain the war effort itself and it introduces
this idea of military emancipation as an actual federal policy Congress authorizing the confiscation
of enemy slaves its essentially instructing the rest of the army to follow Ben Butler's
lead what he had established first at Fort Monroe in Virginia in July 1862 Congress passed
the second confiscation act which declared that any Confederate official still fighting
in 60 days would have his slaves freed and its only applicable to Confederate states
where Federal troops are already present and you'll note here it says it requires presidential
proclamation to go into effect essentially by July 1862 when the Second Confiscation
Act passed the course of events had taken things so far between generals in the field
acting Congress acting the circumstances of war the country had changed substantially
all the while Abraham Lincoln in Washington DC is seeing the casualty tolls of this war
growing higher and higher and deep down Lincoln knew as president he was responsible for all
this he knew that with this bloodshed occurring in the country there had to be some greater
meaning to this sacrifice it had to move the United States toward a better country and
July 1862 ends up being a pivotal month although Lincoln himself doesn't actually issue anything
in July 1862 he first kind of discusses the idea of issuing an emancipation proclamation
on July 13 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's infant son had died and on the carriage ride
to the funeral Lincoln told Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that he was thinking about
issuing a proclamation of emancipation regarding slaves in the South several days later one
of Lincoln's secretaries John Hay wrote he will not conserve slavery much longer when
he next speaks he of course being the president when he next speaks in relation to this defiant
and ungrateful villainy it will be with no uncertain sound and on July 22 at a cabinet
meeting the moment of truth arrives for President Lincoln he told his cabinet members that he
had decided to issue an emancipation proclamation regarding the slaves in the South he told
them his mind was made up as to whether or not to do this he was going to do it however
the matter was open for their input as to how and when to issue this proclamation the
particulars if you will after discussing the matter it was Secretary of State William Seward
who suggested waiting before issuing this emancipation proclamation as things were not
going very well at that time for the Union Union armies were experiencing many different
setbacks and Seward believed rightfully so that if this proclamation were to be issued
when Union forces were being defeated on the battlefield then it would look like a move
of desperation it would look like they were trying to outflank the Confederacy with a
hail Mary down the field but that it not at all what Lincoln wants this to be he wants
it to be seen as an act of righteousness so he agrees with Seward and decides to wait
he will take this draft of an emancipation proclamation and hold on to it in the meantime
the rest of the country knows nothing of this and in August of 1862 this other handsome
gentleman here Horace Greeley who had one of the more impressive Civil War beards I
think Horace Greeley publishes in his paper the prayer of twenty millions begging President
Lincoln to issue an emancipation—to do something regarding slavery and emancipation on August
19 1862 and Lincoln wrote a response several days later which has been hotly debated ever
since and his response written on August 22 really has been at the heart of a lot of the
controversy about the Emancipation Proclamation because Lincoln says in his response to Horace
Greeley in part my paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and it is not
either to save or destroy slavery if I could save the Union without freeing any slave I
would do it and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it and if I could
save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that what I do about
slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to save the Union and what
I forebear I forebear because I do not believe it will help to save the Union he went on
to say I have here stated my purpose according to my view of my official duty and I have
no modification of my oft expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free
well gee he just said he didn't care about slavery in that quote well keep in mind Lincoln
is above all else a politician and from time to time we all know politicians will say things
or write things which aren't necessarily entirely true well Lincoln writes this public
letter responding to Horace Greeley saying essentially yes I'm trying to still save
the Union but remember one month before to the day ironically July 22 was when he had
that cabinet meeting August 22 is when he writes this letter one month before he had
already told his cabinet I'm going to issue the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that
was in his opinion something necessary to save the Union and push the country toward
a better future Lincoln was simply just waiting for the right time well the right time would
come soon enough the war would force his hand the war would present the opportunity in the
late summer of 1862 Confederates continued their momentum with victories at Second Manassas
in Virginia in the west Braxton Bragg pushed north into the state of Kentucky and in the
East Robert E. Lee moved into Maryland and in mid-September Union and Confederate forces
squared off near the banks of Antietam Creek in the Battle of Antietam the bloodiest single
day in American history with over 23,000 casualties killed wounded and missing in the span of
twelve hours at the start of this campaign Lincoln would later state that when the campaign
began when Confederates under Lee crossed into Maryland at that time he made a promise
to himself and to God that should Lee's army be pushed out of Maryland somehow and
someway that would be the victory that he needed the victory for which he had been waiting
to issue his Emancipation Proclamation by the morning of September 19, after the heavy
bloodshed at Antietam, Confederates had retreated back across the Potomac River several days
later once it was clear that confederates would not come back into the state at that
time Monday September 22 1862 five days after Antietam while the carnage still covered the
battlefield Lincoln held another Cabinet meeting and he began the meeting in a rather odd way
he began by reading an amusing story from Artemus Ward not exactly what you would do
to start a meeting where you are going to issue something that people will be talking
about for centuries then he told them it was time to issue the emancipation proclamation
he said when the rebel army was at Frederick I determined as soon as it should be driven
out of Maryland to issue a proclamation of emancipation I said nothing to anyone but
made a promise to myself and to my Maker the Rebel army is now driven out and I am going
to fulfill that promise so Lincoln decides and tells them that he is using his preliminary
emancipation proclamation which declares that on January 1 1863 when the final version was
signed all slaves in those states then in rebellion against the Federal government would
be then thenceforward and forever free in this text he says that the war is still being
waged to preserve the Union and he declares that the freedom of these slaves would be
recognized and maintained by the government he says that as of January 1 1863 the day
this proclamation goes live goes into effect if you will he says that on that day he will
make clear the exact areas that this will apply to and we will get into that in a little
bit it also places two congressional laws into action a March 1862 law banning military
personnel from returning escaped slaves and that second Confiscation Act we discussed
a little bit earlier so Lincoln has issued his preliminary proclamation giving 100 days
before the final version was issued he would later say that he didn't really realize
that there was a span of exactly 100 days that was just one of the ironies of history
those 100 days did not go over all that well many saw this as a desperate move even though
it came after the Union victory at Antietam where Lee's army had been set back saying
that this was Lincoln's last warning to the Confederacy come back or else I will take
your slaves in those 100 days there are many things going against President Lincoln there
are mid-term elections that are seeing democratic gains Union defeats on the battlefield at
Fredericksburg in Virginia and in Mississippi worries over a European intervention continue
still and by late December there is a Federal offensive into Central Tennessee the fate
of which is still unclear by the time Lincoln issues his proclamation moreover there are
morale problems in the North and in northern armies many Union soldiers see this proclamation
and think I didn't sign up to fight for to free any slaves I signed up to preserve
the Union and to do only that making matters worse for president Lincoln he is squabbling
and having difficulties with Union commander George McClellan an extremely popular figure
who Lincoln would have to relieve of his command because McClellan was one of many who were
not getting on board in believing in the emancipation proclamation and in the midst of all this
all this doubt and all these setbacks Lincoln stays the course in his December 1862 message
to Congress he continues pressing the matter he still proposes compensated emancipation
and other gradual measures but he says fellow citizens we cannot escape history saying that
the light of history will be shining upon them in this moment on December 31 New Years
Eve many waited and wondered if Lincoln would actually issue this emancipation proclamation
African Americans gathered in churches meeting houses to wait and hear word if Lincoln would
actually issue this measure and that night was a lonely one for President Lincoln I can
only imagine what was going through his mind that evening as he paced the halls of the
White House knowing that the next day he was going to issue this document the likes of
which no other American president had ever issued before he didn't sleep much that
night on the morning of January 1 New Year's Day 1863 Lincoln wrote out the final text
of the Emancipation Proclamation he sent it out to the state department for an official
copy but he didn't sign it until the afternoon until he had been downstairs greeting well-wishers
in the Executive Mansion shaking hands for several hours and in case you couldn't guess
after shaking hands for several hours Lincoln's hand was a little sore so much so that when
he went to sign his name on the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation his hand
was shaking and he was concerned that someone would see a shaky signature on there and think
that he didn't believe in the measure thinking that this was a halfhearted measure so he
paused and said I never in my life felt more certain than I do in signing this paper and
he affixed his signature and the Emancipation Proclamation became official so what did this
final emancipation proclamation do January 1 1863 it declared all slaves in those states
then in rebellion against the Federal government to be forever free it declared that the Federal
government would play an active role in guaranteeing and maintaining the freedom of former slaves
bold and precedent setting language and also importantly and often overlooked it opens
the door for African Americans to serve in the Union army and navy during the Civil War
these are three key components of the Emancipation Proclamation its openly enticing slaves now
to come to Union lines and then allowing them to join the Union armed forces now he does
include an appeal against slave uprisings and violence and it specifically lays out
areas where it did have authority in the South so this answers the what did it do question
it's a bit tougher to answer what did it not do because there is a lot here as well
what did it not do it has very precise legal language it's got that moral grandeur of
the bill of lading it exempts large parts of the Confederacy that were then under Federal
control its claiming authority over these Confederate states though they certainly wouldn't
see it that way it's not though slave holders in Alabama or Georgia will say well the emancipation
proclamation has been issued I guess we better listen to President Lincoln that's not going
to happen it only frees slaves in states over which the government currently at that time
really doesn't have control slavery is untouched in the Border States it is a temporary war
measure in many different ways it is not making slavery as an institution illegal it is only
affecting the status of certain slaves themselves and as such it doesn't have a lasting legal
impact beyond the war so there is a lot there there is a lot to the what did it not do section
so we might wonder well if it doesn't do all that why is it so important why doesn't
it apply to every part of the Confederacy why doesn't it apply to the Border States
this is one of those myths I've seen used a lot that say it's not really that effective
Lincoln didn't really mean it if he meant it why didn't he free slaves in the Border
States well the answer is very simple Lincoln is issuing this under his war powers as commander
in chief he therefore can't issue it for parts of the country that currently aren't
in a war against the Federal government he has to write this very carefully and specifically
because he knows that if this goes into a Federal court it could be overturned keep
in mind the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at that time was still the author of the Dred
Scott decision Roger Taney so Lincoln wants to make sure that as a military necessity
emancipation is maintained these are the specific areas immediately affected by the Emancipation
Proclamation you can see different colors down here seceded areas not occupied by Union
troops those are the areas where it was having an impact seceded areas occupied by Union
troops seceded areas occupied by Union troops and not exempted and then the state of Tennessee
which had exemptions of its own so this is a very carefully crafted proclamation under
Lincoln's war powers as commander in chief its going all the way back to John Quincy
Adams in the 1830s who argued that if there was a rebellion in this country the laws of
war and the laws of nations the president of the United States would be able to declare
enemy property and slaves emancipation so the proclamation has been issued the war is
over right the slaves are freed it's a happy ending well no not at all and we should know
that very well here at Gettysburg in 1863 the war continues the promise had been made
for freedom but now the promise must be kept and it would be kept by Lincoln but also by
Union soldiers on the battlefield many of whom the deeper they went into Southern states
the more they came into contact with slavery the more they came to hate it while you had
some soldiers saying initially I'm not going to fight to free the slaves the more they
come into contact with it some begin to warm up to the Emancipation proclamation saying
well as a practical measure this might help to end the war sooner and others as they contacted
slavery realized that this was something that really needed to happen as the war continues
the summer of 1863 sees several key crucial events one of which of course is the fall
of Vicksburg on the Mississippi another happens just a stone's throw from where we currently
sit here at Gettysburg had Confederates been successful in these contests and campaigns
that promise of emancipation may have failed amidst battlefield defeat but these defeats
helped to if you will in a sense defend the Emancipation Proclamation but there was one
other very key thing that happened or several other key things that happened that summer
right after Gettysburg there were draft riots occurring in New York City low morale in the
North many not wanting to sign up to fight or be drafted in this war a big part of these
riots was racial animosity toward African Americans Emancipation was a part of that
but there's another key event in the summer of 1863 directly tied to the Emancipation
proclamation happens a couple of weeks after Gettysburg in Charleston Harbor Frederick
Douglass said in 1863 once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters US let
him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket
and there is no power on earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the
right of citizenship in the United States well one of the most overlooked parts of emancipation
is opening the door for African Americans to serve in the Union army and navy the 54th
Massachusetts is the first all-black regiment recruited in the North they make their big
combat debut July 18 1863 at Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor sustaining nearly 50%
casualties and failing to take the fort this has of course been made famous by the movie
Glory this was one of the key main events of July 1863 proving that even though the
54th Massachusetts had not been successful at Battery Wagner they had proved themselves
every bit as brave and heroic and every bit as citizens of this country as their fellow
white soldiers the Atlantic Monthly reacted to their efforts there saying through the
cannon smoke of that dark night the manhood of the colored race shines before many eyes
that before would not see it also becoming a part of the Emancipation Proclamation and
its impact on the country its multifaceted impact and of course several months later
Lincoln makes his journey here to Gettysburg giving that rhetorical flourish his speech
explaining what he was doing with the Emancipation Proclamation no one was ever going to challenge
the Gettysburg Address in a court of law it's a speech not a legal document or a presidential
proclamation Lincoln can say pretty much whatever he wants in these remarks but it's important
to remember you can't fully understand the emancipation proclamation without understanding
the message Lincoln discusses here at Gettysburg in many different ways in 1864 the war continues
still but as Congressman James Garfield said in January 1864 now the Union army is an abolition
army the war and its fate are still not secured President Lincoln's reelection is not secured
victory was still possible for the Confederates in 1864 emancipation was still not a sealed
final deal you also see in 1864 other states such as Maryland one of those Border States
following Lincoln's lead in abolishing slavery on their own Maryland does this by adopting
a new state constitution that takes effect November 1 of 1864 abolishing slavery within
the state's borders impacting some 87,000 slaves living in the state of Maryland according
to the 1860 census there's also a constitutional amendment that was introduced and passed by
the Senate abolishing slavery though it did not pass the House of Representatives slavery
had been dealt mortal blows but it still was not yet dead it wasn't dead until that Constitutional
amendment was finally passed in January 1865 Lincoln himself was among those who keenly
recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation though very important though a major blow
against slavery, there was still more work to be done it was only dealing with the status
of slaves not abolishing slavery as an institution itself which is why Lincoln himself was one
of the big proponents of passing the eventual 13th amendment I'm sure many of you have
seen the move Lincoln which details these efforts if you haven't seen it I highly
recommend it but after Lincoln's reelection the Lame Duck Congress goes back and the House
of Representatives passes the 13th amendment to the US Constitution which Lincoln himself
said winds the whole thing up the 13th Amendment was the kings cure for the evil of slavery
without the emancipation proclamation you don't move far enough along the line to
get this amendment it helped to make it possible this constitutional amendment was the final
step in abolishing slavery a permanent constitutional solution to the problem of slavery in the
United States of course with the end of the war this brings new questions and new problems
what rights are African Americans going to have in this new nation that has been created
as a result of the Civil War Reconstruction would fail to deliver on many of these promises
and hopes of abolitionists Lincoln himself of course did not see this so we have to ask
was the Emancipation Proclamation an important document did it accomplish anything absolutely
yes the Emancipation Proclamation was a bold presidential statement about the purpose for
which this war was being fought it not only made military emancipation a policy of the
Federal government bu tit declared in no uncertain terms that the war would no longer be fought
to preserve the Union as it once was that Union perished alongside thousands of soldiers
on the battlefields of this war this was now a war being waged to preserve the Union as
it would and as it should be one without slavery of course the Emancipation Proclamation was
important but don't' just take my word for it many different famous figures in our
nation's history have spoken of the Emancipation proclamation and its importance among them
Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass and Lincoln didn't always see eye to eye on
issues but on this topic he spoke with great eloquence there are certain great national
acts which by their relation to universal principles properly belong to the whole human
family Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of the first of January 1863 is one of these
acts this is the famous painting of Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation done by
Francis Carpenter one of my favorite quotes about the proclamation also comes from James
Garfield in September 1862 as a young army officer James Garfield wrote I am rejoiced
at the president's proclamation it gives us light in the midst of darkness and shows
us the beginning of the end he went on to say in January when the final version was
signed strange that a second rate Illinois lawyer should be the instrument through whom
on of the sublimest works of any age is accomplished Charles Sumner provided a moving eulogy for
President Lincoln in June 1865 in Boston saying it is impossible to exaggerate the proclamation
of Emancipation as an historic event its influence cannot be limited to the present in place
or time it will reach beyond the national jurisdiction and beyond the present age Lincoln
through all the various circumstances and complexities of the war was able to determine
the right time and the right method with which to act through decades of policy and precedent
Lincoln capitalized on a key moment in American history and issued what I believe to be the
single most important presidential action in the history of this country but it has
similarities to other documents from our nation's history if our nation had done nothing more
in its whole history that to create just two documents its contribution to civilization
would be imperishable the first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the
other is that which we are here to honor tonight the Emancipation Proclamation this speech
was given September 12 1962 I'll tell you who gave it when I finish he quote all tyrants
past present and future are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations no matter
how extensive their legions how vast their power and how malignant their evil September
12 1962 in New York City that was said by Martin Luther King Jr for the 100th anniversary
of the Emancipation Proclamation and he is very right in comparing the Emancipation Proclamation
and the Declaration of Independence every time I've been told at the end of a battlefield
talk or a program ranger don't you know the Emancipation Proclamation was really just
a meaningless piece of paper sure was so was the Declaration of Independence each one was
a proclamation a declaration giving hope for freedom for millions but it still needed hard
work and sacrifice for that promise of freedom to become a reality each one was a beacon
of hope that but they were meaningless without sacrifice the Declaration of Independence
was meaningless without George Washington and the Continental Army the Emancipation
Proclamation was meaningless without George Meade and the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg
and the sacrifices of thousands of soldiers who Lincoln himself described as laying their
lives at the altar of freedom as Lincoln himself noted more work was still needed and it's
a fitting comparison that Martin Luther King Jr made between the Emancipation Proclamation
and the Declaration of Independence because Lincoln himself would not that the Declaration
of Independence and its statement that all men were created equal were so crucial to
him and his beliefs as he said at Independence Hall in February 1861 I have never had a feeling
politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence
but of course the Declaration and the Proclamation were each meaningless pieces of paper and
their promises of freedom for millions were meaningless without the sacrifices of thousands
just something to keep in mind when we evaluate the importance of these documents that this
was a key moment arguably the most important single event in the war but it was given life
and meaning by the sacrifices of thousands on battlefields from Antietam to Gettysburg
all across this great country this is a rather complex and messy topic in many ways so I
thought a the end I would throw up a slide with some suggested books if you're interested
in learning more about this these are books I've read and found to be really really
good in helping to get a grasp o this topic and get a sense of it so if you're looking
for more information and a way to explore this further I recommend checking out some
of these titles on behalf of the staff here at Gettysburg National Military Park I want
to thank everyone for coming out here today thank you for joining us for our winter lecture
if you have any questions I'll be happy to take them thank you so much
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