Quote:
Originally Posted by Sman
I don't want to pee in anyone's breakfast cereal, but if that tyrant Lincoln was such a noble creature, then why, did he use his Emacipation Proclamation as an article of subjugation rather than as an instrument for real change?
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Have you considered reading what actually took place as an alternative to threatening the breakfasts of others?
Lincoln acted when he acted because the special circumstances under which he could act, prevailed. Lincoln had no constitutional authority to free any slaves and Lincoln never argued that he did, nor did Lincoln promise or threaten to disrupt existing slavery in any manner during his campaign.
Had the Southern States not rebelled, there would have been no Emancipation Proclamation, there was no legal authority for it. The South provided that authority when they waged war against the US government. It was legal for a president to issue proclamations of wartime measures related to the winning of the war. Clearly the ownership and use of slaves to sustain agriculture, erect fortifications, drive commissary wagons etc, was a military asset for the South. Confiscation of those assets was within the president's wartime powers...the South made it possible with their rebellion.
The Proclamation was announced several months before it was to take effect and it included specific language that slaves were only freed in those regions in rebellion against the US government. Any Southern State could have preserved their slave ownership by quitting the rebellion before January 1st of 1863. None took advantage of this.
You also err with your notion that Lincoln did not act for "real change." The historical record shows that Lincoln had a perfect understanding of the long term consequences of the Emancipation Proclamation and when the question of how permanent the proclamation's effects would be, Lincoln consistently indicated that once free, none of these people would be returned to slavery. His support of the anti slavery amendments to the Constitution should tell you this.
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