The Emancipation Proclamation An Act of Justice

I I By John Hope Franklin

hursday, January 1, 1863, was a bright, crisp day in the nation's capital. The previous day had been a strenu­ ous one for President Lincoln, but New Year's Day was to be even more strenuous. So he rose early. There was much to do, not the least of which was to put the finishing touches on the Emancipation Proclamation. At 1010:45:45 the document was brought to the White House by Secretary of State William Seward. The President signed it, but he noticed an error in the superscription. It read, "In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed." The President had never used that form in proclamations, always preferring to say "In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand...... " He asked Seward to make the correction, and the formal signing would be made on the corrected copy. The traditional New Year's Day reception at the White House be­ gan that morning at eleven o'clock. Members of the cabinet and the diplomatic corps were among the first to arrive.arrive. Officers of the army and navy arrived in a body at half past eleven. The public was ad­ mitted at noon, and then Seward and his son Frederick, the assistant secretary of state, returned with the corrected draft. The rigid laws of etiquette held the President to his duty for three hours, as his secre­ taries Nicholay and Hay observed. "Had necessity required it, he could of course have left such mere social occupation at any mo­ ment," they pointed out, "but the President saw no occasion for precipitancy. On the other hand, he probably deemed it wise that the completion of this momentous executive act should be attended by every circumstance of deliberationdeliberation."." After the guests departed, the President went upstairs to his study for the signing in the presence of a few friendsfriends.. No cabinet meeting was called, and no attempt was made to have a ceremonyceremony.. Later, Lincoln told F. B. Carpenter, the artist, that as he took up the pen to sign the paper, his hand shook so violently that he could not write. "1 could not for a moment control my arm.arm. I paused, and a superstitious feeling came over me which made me hesitate.... In a moment I remembered that I had been shaking hands for hours with several hundred people, and hence a very simple explanation of the trem­ bling and shaking of my arm." With a hearty laugh at his own thoughts, the President proceeded to sign the Emancipation Procla­Procla-

149 White House reception earlier that day and had greeted him.him. When the Presi­ dent made his regular calcall.1 at the tele­ graph office that eveningevening,, young Rosewa­ ter was on duty and was more excited than ever. He greeted the President and went back to his work.work. Lincoln walked over to see what Rosewater was sending out. It was the Emancipation Proclama­ tion! If Rosewater WilSwas excited, the Presi­ dent seemed the picture of relaxation.relaxation. Af­ ter watching the young operator for a while, the President went over to the A Union soldier reads the Emancipation Proclamation to newly freed slaves. After desk of Tom EckertEckert,, the chief telegraph Lincoln signed the Proclamation, celebrations took place throughout the country. operator in the War Department,Department, sat in mation.mation. Just before he affixed his name to It is worth observing that there was no his favorite chair, where he had written the documentdocument,, he said,said, " I never,never, in my mention, in the finalfin al draftdraft,, of Lincoln's most of the preliminary proclamation the life, felt more certain that I was doing pet schemes of compensation and coloni­ previous summersummer,, and gave his feet the right than I do in signing this paper." zation,zation, which were in the preliminary proper elevation.elevation. For him, it was the end When I made my first serious study of proclamation of September 2222,, 1862. PerPer­­ of a long, busy, but perfect day.day. this document, several copies of the De­ haps Lincoln was about to give up on For many others in various parts of the cember 30 draft were in existence. The such impracticable propositions. In the countrycountry,, the day was just beginning, for copies of cabinet officers Edward BatesBates,, preliminary proclamation, the President the celebrations were not considered of­ Francis Blair, William SewardSeward,, and had said that he would declare slaves in ficial until word was received that the Salmon P. Chase were in the Library of desidesignatedgna ted territories "thenceforward, President had actuallyactually signed the Procla­ Congress. The draft that the President and forever free.free . " In the final draft of Jan­ mationmation.. The slaves of the District of Co­ worked with on December 31 and the uary 11,, 1863,1863, he was content to say that lumbia did not have to wait,wait, however,however, for morning of New YearYear's's Day is considered they "are"are,, and henceforward shall be back in April 1862 the Congress had the final manuscript draft. The principal free."free ." Nothing had been said in the pre­ passed a law setting them freefree. . Even so, parts of the text are written in the Presi­ liminary draft about the use of blacks as they joined in the widespread celebra­ dentdent's's hand.hand. The two paragraphs from soldiers. In the summer of 1862 the Con­ tions on New Year'sYear's Day. At Israel Bethel the preliminary proclamation of Septem­ fiscation Act hhadad authorized the Presi­ ChurchChurch,, Reverend Henry McNeal Turner ber 22, 18621862,, were clipped from a printed dent to use blacks in any way he saw fit , went out and secured a copy of the Wash­ copy and pasted onto the President's and there had been some limited use of iningtongton EveningEvening Star that carried the tetextxt of draft,draft, "merely to save writing."writing." The su­ them in noncombat activities.activities. In stating the Proclamation. Back at the church,church, perscription and the final closing are in in the Proclamation that former slaves Turner waved the newspaper from the the hand of a clerk in the Department of were to be received into the armed ser­ pulpit and began to read the document. State.State. Later in the yearyear,, Lincoln pre­ vices,vices, the President believed that he was This was the signal for unrestrained cel­ sented his copy to the ladies in charge of using congressional authority to strike a ebration characterized by men squealing, the Northwestern Fair in Chicago.Chicago. He mighty blow against the Confederacy. women fainting, dogs barking, and told them that he had some desire to re­ It was late afternoon before the Procla­ whites and blacks shaking handshands.. The tain the paper, "but if it shall contribute mation was ready for transmission to the Washington celebrations continued far to the relief and comfort of the soldiers, press and others.others. Earlier drafts had been into the night. In the Navy Yard,Yard, cannons that will be better,"better," he said most gra­ availableavailable,, and some papers, including the began to roar and continued for some ciously. Thomas Bryan purchased it and Washington EveningEvening Star,Star, hadhad used those time.time. presented it to the SoldiersSoldiers'' Home in Chi­ drafts, but it was at about 8 P.M.P . M . on Jan­ In New York the news of the Proclama­ cago,cago, of which he was president. The uary 1 that the transmission of the text tion was received with mixedmixed feelings. home was destroyed in the Great Chicago over the telegraph wires actually began. Blacks looked and felt happyhappy,, one re­ Fire of 1871187l.. Fortunately, four photo­ Young Edward Rosewater, scarcely porter said, while abolitionists "looked graphic copies of the original had been twenty years old, had an excitingexciting New glum and grumbled . ... . that the procla­ procla­ mademade.. The official engrossed document is YearYear's's Day.Day. He was a mere telegraph op­ mation was only given on account of mil­mil­ in the National Archives and follows Lin­Lin­ erator in the War Department,Department, but he itary necessitynecessity."." Within a week, how­how­ coln'scoin's original copycopy.. knew the President and had gone to the ever, there were several large celebra-

150 SUMMER 1993 PROLOGUE tions in which abolitionists took partpart.. At than Lincoln the fact that the Emancipa­ Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, the cele­ tion Proclamation had a quite limited ef­ brated Henry Ward Beecher preached a fect in freeing the slaves directly. It commemorative sermon to an overflow should be remembered, however, that in audienceaudience.. "The Proclamation may not the Proclamation he called emancipation free a single slave," he declared, "but it "an act of justice," and in later weeks and gives liberty a moral recognition."recognition." There months he did everything he could to was still another celebration at Cooper confirm his view that it was An AActct of Jus­ Union on January 5. Several speakersspeakers,, in­ tice . And no one was more anxious than cluding the veteran abolitionist Lewis Lincoln to take the necessary additional Tappan, addressed the overflow audi­ steps to bring about actual freedomfreedom.. ence. Music interspersed the several ad­ Thus, he proposed that the Republican dresses.dresses. Two of the renditions were the party include in its 1864 platform a plank "N"Newew John Brown Song," and the calling for the abolition of slavery by con­ "Emancipation Hymn." Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed, "To­"To­ stitutional amendment. When he was A veritable galaxy of leading literary day unbind the captive," in his reading of ""notified"notified" of his renomination, as was the "Boston Hymn." figures gathered in the Music Hall in Bos­ the custom in those days, he singled out ton to take notice of the climax of the fight that plank in the platform calling for con­ that New England abolitionists had led signal both to the slaves and to the Con­ stitutional emancipation and pronounced for more than a generation. Among those federacy that enslavement would no it ""aa fitting and necessary conclusion to present were John Greenleaf Whittier, longer be tolerated. An important part of the final success of the Union cause.."" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Longfellow, Oliver that signal was the invitation to the slaves Early in 18651865,, when Congress sent the Wendell Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe,Stowe, to take up arms and participate in the amendment to Lincoln for his signaturesignature,, Francis Parkman, and Josiah Quincy. To­ fight for their own freedom. That more he is reported to have said, "This amend­ ward the close of the meeting, Ralph than 185,000 slaves as well as free blacks ment is a KingKing's's cure for all the evils. It Waldo Emerson read his "Boston Hymn" accepted the invitation indicates that winds the whole thing upup."." to the audience.audience. In the evening, a large those who had been the victims of thral­ Despite the fact that the Proclamation crowd gathered at Tremont Temple to dom were now among the most enthusi­ did not emancipate the slaves and surely await the news that the President had astic freedom fighters. did not do what the Thirteenth Amend­ signed the Proclamation.Proclamation. Among the Meanwhile, no one appreciated better ment did in winding things up, it is the speakers were Judge Thomas Russell, Anna Dickinson,Dickinson, Leonard Grimes,Grimes, William Wells Brown,Brown, and Frederick Douglass. Finally, it was announced that "It is coming over the wire," and pande­ monium broke out! At midnight,midnight, the group had to vacate Tremont TempleTemple,, and from there they went to the Twelfth Baptist Church at the invitation of its pas­ tortor,, Leonard GrimesGrimes.. Soon the church was packedpacked,, and it was almost dawn when the assemblage dispersed.dispersed. Freder­ ick Douglass pronounced it a "worthy" worthy celebration of the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the thral­ dom of the ages."ages." The trenchant observation by Douglass that the Emancipation Proclamation was but the first step could not have been more accurateaccurate.. Although the presidential decree would not free slaves in areas where the United States could not en­ The Emancipation Proclamation extended an invitation to slaves and free blacks to force the Proclamation, it sent a mighty take up arms and fight for their freedom. AboveAbove,, a black infantry at Fort Lincoln.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMAPROCLAMATIONnON 151 ' I 'I

' I

. ation Proclamation Althou~hAlthough ~hethe E~:~~'~nE~;n~i~ate~~;o~L~"'s~::e~ freeing the slaves had a haddirectly, a l,m,tedlim.ited itIt has e"ee"b,ec beeneen '~elebratedce Ie brated over the past 130 years.

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PROLOGUE

Proclamation and not the Thirteenth nals, so he turned to the New York Times,Times , That for which tens of thousands Amendment that has been remembered which published it on its editorial page fought, and celebrated over the past 130 years. on January 1, 1913. For which so many freely died, That should not be surprising. Americans Addressing his fellow African Ameri­ God cannot let it come to naught. seem not to take to celebrating legal doc­ cans in the first stanzas, Johnson said: In the second half of the Proclamation's uments. The language of such documents first century, the annual celebrations di­ is not particularly inspiring, and they are o Brothers mine, to-day we stand minished in extent as well as in fervorfervor.. the product of the deliberations of large Where half a century sweeps our Some celebrants, with an eye on a quick numbers of people. We celebrate the Dec­ ken, buck, began to promote June 19, the day laration of Independence, but not the rat­ Since God, through Lincoln's ready on which President Lincoln signed a bill ification of the Constitution. Jefferson's hand, abolishing slavery in the territories. The words in the Declaration moved the Struck off our bonds and made us bill did not apply to Texas, which was a emerging Americans in a way that Mad­ menmen.. state in the Confederacy, but slick pro­ ison's committee of style failed to do in moters there soon drew attention to that the Constitution. Just fifty years--ayears-a winter's day­ day­ day and persuaded Texans, Oklahomans, Thus, almost annually-at least for the As runs the history of a race; and others in the Southwest that this was first hundred years-each New Year's Yet, as we look back o'er the day, indeed the day of emancipationemancipation.. It was Day was marked in many parts of the How distant seems our starting never quite clear to me, moreover, why country by a grand celebration. Replete place! we in Oklahoma celebrated August 4 as with brass band, if there was one, an Af­ Then, in a more assertive tone, making well as Juneteenth and January 1, but rican-American fire company, if there certain that humility did not replace self­ clearly the summer months had many ad­ was one, and social, religious, and civic confidence, he said: vantages over a January observance.observance. organizations, African Americans of the Something else was diluting the cele- . community would march to the court­ This land is ours by right of birth, house, to some church, or the high This land is ours by right of toil school. There, they would assemble to We helped to turn its virgin earth, hear the reading of the Emancipation Our sweat is in its fruitful soil. Proclamation, followed by an oration by a prominent person. The speeches varied To gain these fruits that have been ~in character and purpose. Some of them earned, urgedu;ged African Americans to insist upon To hold these fields that have been equal rights; some of them urged frugal­ won, ity and greater attention to morals; while Our arms have strained, our backs still others urged their listeners to harbor have burned, no ill will toward their white brethren. Bent bare beneath a ruthless sun. As the fiftieth anniversary of the ProcProc­­ lamation approached, James Weldon Then should we speak but servile Johnson, already a writer of some distinc­ words, tion, was serving a tour of duty as United Or shall we hang our heads in States consul in Corinto, Nicaragua. His shame? biographer, Eugene Levy, tells us that Stand back of new-come foreign Johnson for some time had considered hordes, wriring a poem commemorating the fifti­ And fear our heritage to claim? eth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In September 1912, when No! stand erect and without fear, he read of the ceremonies marking the And for our foes let this suffice­ preliminary proclamation, he realized We've bought a rightful sonship that he had only one hundred days in here, which to write the poem. Using all of his And we have more than paid the spare time, of which there was little, price.... Johnson hammered out "Fifty YearsYears."." Nelson Rockefeller, Thurgood Marshall, There was not enough time to publish it That for which millions prayed and and Adlai Stevenson (center three) at a in one of the major literary monthly jour- sighed Proclamation centennial exhibit.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 153 PROLOGUE

in 1963,1963, President and Mrs.Mrs. Kennedy re­ ceived more than a thousand black and white citizens at the White House and presented to each of them a copcopyy of the report of the Civil Rights Commission, called Freedom to thethe FreeFree . Speaking at Get­ tysburg later that year, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "Until"Until justice is blind, until education is unaware of race,race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins,skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact." President Kennedy took note of the ab­ sence of equality when he saidsaid,, "Surely, in 1963, one hundred years after emanci­ pation, it should not be necessary for any American citizen to demonstrate in the streets for an opportunity to stop at a ho­ tel, or eat at a lunch counter ...... on the same terms of any other American."American." Although it is now possible for most African Americans to eaeat tat at a lunch counter in most parts of the United States, the extension of these civilities has been accompanied by subtlesubtle,, yet barba­ rous forms of discrimination. These forms extend from redlining in the sale of Lyndon Johnson, a great supporter of civil rights, confers with (l(lefteft to right) Roy real estate to discrimination in employ­employ­ Wilkins, James Farmer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Whitney Young. ment to the maladministration of justicejustice.. In issuing the Emancipation Proclamation brations of the anniversary of the Eman­ cially sensitive to the ssignificanceignificance of the and wording it as he diddid,, Lincoln went as cipation ProclamationProclamation.. It was bad enough Emancipation centennial in pointing up far as he felt the law permitted him to go. that a casual reading of the Proclamation racial inequality in American liflife.e. On Sep­ In subsequent months he went a bit fur­ made clear that it did not set the slaves tember 22,22, 1962, when Governor Nelson ther, inch by inch, until before his death free. It was also clear that neither the Re­ Rockefeller of New York spoke in Wash­ he was calling for the enfranchisement of construction amendments nor the legisla­ ington to mark the opening of the exhibit some blacks. The difference between the tion and executive orders of subsequent of the preliminary proclamation, "the position of Lincoln in 1863 and Ameri­ years had propelled African Americans state's most treasured possession,"possession," he cans in 1993 is thatthat our leaders in high much closer to real freedom and true said, "the very existence of the document places seem not to have either the hu­ equality. The physical violence, the stirsstirs our conscience with the knowledge manity or the courage of LincolnLincoln.. The law wholesale disfranchisement,disfranchisement, and the that LincolnLincoln's's vision of a nation truly ful­ itself is no longer an obstruction to justice widespread degradation of blacks in evev­­ filling its spiritual heritage is not yet and equality, but it is the people who live ery conceivable form merely demon­ achieved."achieved." under the law who are themselves an ob­ strated the resourcefulness and creativity During the centennial year itself, the vious obstruction to justice. One can only of those white Americans who were de­ United States Commission on Civil hope that sooner rather than later we can termined to deny basic constitutional Rights presented to the President a report all find the courage to live under the spirit rights to their black brothers. on the history of civil rightsrights,, most of of the Emancipation Proclamation and Several years before 1963,1963, the National which I wrote on contract with the com­ under the laws that flowed from its inspi­inspi­ Association for the Advancement of Col­ mission. Knowing that I would be out of rationration.. 0 ored People began to use the motto "Free the country during most of the centennial by ''63."63." Other groups adopted the motto year, I published my history of the Eman­ This essay is based onon a talk given bbyy Professor Franklin at the National Archives, January 4,4, and focused more attention on the drive cipation Proclamation as my contribution 19931993,, on the 130thl30th anniversary of the signing for equalitequality.y. Many leaders were espe­espe- to the observance.observance. On Lincoln's birthday of the Emancipation ProclamationProclamation..

154 SUMMER 1993