Emancipation Proclamation :: essays research papers

independence Proclamation, resolve issued by Abraham capital of Nebraska on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, declaring all "slaves in spite of appearance any State, or designated part of a State ... then ... in rebellion, ... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The states affected were enumerated in the proclamation specifically exempted were slaves in parts of the South then held by Union armies. capital of Nebraskas issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation marked a radical change in his policy historians regard it as one of the great state documents of the United States. by and by the outbreak of the Civil War, the slavery issue was made acute by the flight to Union lines of large numbers of slaves who volunteered to fight for their freedom and that of their fissure slaves. In these circumstances, a strict application of established policy would occupy required return of fugitive slaves to their Confederate masters and would have lost the staunchest supporters of the Union cause in the North and abroad.Abolitionists had long been urging Lincoln to free all slaves, and public opinion seemed to support this view. Advertisement Lincoln moved slowly and cautiously nonetheless on March 13, 1862, the federal government forbade all Union army officers to return fugitive slaves, thus annulling in effect the fugitive slave laws. On April 10, on Lincolns initiative, copulation declared the federal government would compensate slave owners who freed their slaves. All slaves in the District of Columbia were freed in this way on April 16, 1862. On June 19, 1862, intercourse enacted a measure prohibiting slavery in United States territories, thus defying the despotic Court decision in the Dred Scott case, which ruled that Congress was powerless to determine slavery in the territories.Finally, after the Union victory in the combat of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation on September 22, de claring his intent of promulgating another proclamation in 100 days, freeing the slaves in the states deemed in rebellion at that time. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, conferring liberty on about 3,120,000 slaves. With the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the U.S.