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How President Lincoln Decided to Issue the Emancipation Proclamation Author(s): James M. McPherson Source: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 37 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 108-109 Published by: The JBHE Foundation Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3134305 Accessed: 06/11/2009 19:41

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http://www.jstor.org How President Lincoln Decided to Issue The Emancipation Proclamation by James M. McPherson

Editor's Note: On September17, 1862, near Sharpsburg,Maryland, 23,000 young menfell dead or wounded in the battle of Antietam. Here, the noted Princeton Universitycivil war historian James M. McPherson explains how Antietambrought President Lincoln to the decision to issue the EmancipationProclamation.

AM NATURALLYanti-slavery," Lincoln insisted."If cooks, musicians, servants,and in other supportcapacities. slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Yet, "I have They provided much of the logistical "tail"of these armies " neverunderstood that the Presidencyconferred upon (functionsinitially performed by white soldiers and civilians me an unrestrictedright to act officially upon in Union armies) and therebyfreed a high pro- this judgment and feeling." Because he had portionof Confederatesoldiers for combat duty. no constitutionalpower to interferewith slav- As time passed, more and more Yankeesbegan ery in the states, and because he needed to re- asking: Why not convert this southernasset of tain the support of border states and Demo- black labor into a northernasset by confiscating crats, Lincoln in the first year of the war re- - ^b slaves as enemy property, freeing them, and peatedly defined his policy as restorationof t puttingthem to work for the Union? - the Union which of course meant a Union (Sil;?~?!1i:i Five days after the battle of Antietam in Sep- with slavery. tember 1862, Lincoln called a special meeting From the beginning, however, abolitionists of the Cabinet. He reminded members of their and radicalRepublicans echoed the words of decision two months earlier to postpone is- black leader Frederick Douglass: "To fight suance of an emancipation proclamation. "I against slaveholders,without fighting against thinkthe time has come now,"the presidentcon- slavery,is but a half-heartedbusiness. Warfor tinued."I wish it was a bettertime. The action of the destructionof liberty must be met with war for the de- the army against the rebels has not been quite what I should structionof slavery."More and more Republicans- even- have best liked. But they have been drivenout of Maryland." tually including Lincoln - came to agree with this idea as When the enemy was at Frederick, Lincoln had made a the war ground on. They took note of southernboasts that "promiseto myself and (hesitatinga little) to my Maker"that slavery was a "tower of strength to the Confederacy"be- "if God gave us the victory in the approachingbattle, [I] cause slaves did most of the laborin the South, thus enabling would consider it an indication of Divine will" in favor of Confederates"to place in the field a force so much largerin emancipation.Lincoln suggested that Antietam was God's proportionto her [white] populationthan the North."Dou- sign that "he had decided this question in favor of the glass declaredthat he could not understand"Why? Oh! why slaves."Therefore, said the president,he intendedthat day to in the name of all that is national, does our Government issue the proclamationwarning Confederatestates that un- allow its enemies this powerful advantage?The very stom- less they returnedto the Union by January 1, 1863, their ach of the rebellion is the Negro in the condition of a slave. slaves "shallbe then, thenceforward,and forever free." Arrestthat hoe in the hands of the Negro, and you smite re- Perhaps no consequence of Antietam was more momen- bellion in the very seat of its life." tous than this one. It changed the characterof the war, as Slave laborwas so importantin Confederatearmies as well General-in-Chief Halleck noted in a communication to as on the home front that the governmentimpressed slaves Ulysses S. Grant:"There is now no possible hope of recon- into service before it began draftingwhite men as soldiers. ciliation. We must conquer the rebels or be conquered by c Thousands of slaves worked as army laborers, teamsters, them. Every slave withdrawnfrom the enemy is the equiva- lent of a white man hors de combat."The 0 James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis Professor of History at put proclamation sa Princeton University. This article is adapted from his new book, Cross- would apply only to states in rebellion, which produced 3 roads Freedom- The Battle That the Course the of Antietam: Changed of some confusion because it thus seemed to "liberate"those Civil War(Oxford University Press, 2002). Copyright? 2002 by James M. o McPherson.Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. slaves who were mostly beyond Union authoritywhile leav-

108 AUTUMN 2002 . X _ _ _ _ . _ _oWashington to_over

ing in bondagethose in the borderstates. This apparent the Potomac.There was good reasonfor worryabout this. anomalycaused disappointment among some abolitionists GeneralFitz-John Porter branded Lincoln's document "the andradical Republicans. But mostof themrecognized that absurdproclamation of a politicalcoward." It has "caused the commander-in-chief'slegal powers extendedonly to disgustand expressions of disloyalty,to theviews of thead- enemyproperty. Some of that"property," however, would be ministration"in the army,wrote Porter privately. McClellan freedby the Proclamationor by the practicalforces of war himselfconsidered the Proclamation"infamous" and told becausethousands of con- his wife thathe could trabandsin Confederate not"make up my mind stateswere alreadywith- to fightfor suchan ac- in Union lines. Polato -ce pul, cursed. doctrine as that ",' . And in any event, the ?: '---: ,~:'T'~'-g;.:i.of a servile insurrec- symbolic power of the ,cl tion."General McClel- . .. " ' Proclamation changed- | the war from one to re- storethe Union into one F to destroythe old Union X\te/ ~ "to submitto the Presi- / and build a new one i i C d dent'sproclamation and purged of human bon- / quietly continue doing dage. "GodBless Abra- ~:,j~~ my duty as a soldier." ham Lincoln!"blazoned He even took action to Horace Greeley's New p X ~ ~quietloose talkamong YorkTribune on some of his subordi- Septem- --ill7-% 7 ber 23. "It is the begin- r_ nates about marching ningof the end of the re- on Washingtonto over- bellion; the beginning of In 1862,after a draftof the EmaJncipat tion Proclamation becane public, throw the government. the new life of the na- a Britishpolitical cartoonist shol wed IDresident Lincoln playing the riace On October7 McClel- card in what was called a d esperiate attempt to save the Union lan issued a general tion." The Emancipation byfostering a slave rebellion in the Confederatestates.ssued a general Proclamation"is one of order reminding the those stupendousfacts in humanhistory which marksnot armyof its dutyof obedienceto civil authority."The reme- only an erain theprogress of thenation, but an epochin the dy for politicalerrors, if any arecommitted," he notedin a historyof the world."Speaking for AfricanAmericans, none-too-subtlereference to theforthcoming elections, "is to FrederickDouglass declared, "We shout for joy thatwe live be foundin the actionof thepeople at thepolls." to recordthis righteous decree." Theissue of emancipationwould continue - at timesdan- Democratsalmost unanimously denounced the Proclama- gerously- to dividethe armyand the northernpublic for tion and vowed to campaignagainst it in the fall congres- anothersix monthsor more.But in the end, as the Spring- sional elections.Many border-stateUnionists also com- field (Mass.)Republican predicted on September24, 1862, plainedloudly. Lincoln had already discounted this opposi- it would"be sustained by thegreat mass of theloyal people." tion,which had once concerned him so greatly.He hadtried Thesewere the peoplewho agreedwith Lincoln's words in in vainto get theborder states to move voluntarily,but now his messageto Congresson December1, 1862:"Without "we mustmake the forwardmovement" without them, he slaverythe rebellion could never have existed; without slav- toldthe Cabinet. "They [will] acquiesce, if notimmediately, eryit couldnot continue." The Springfield Republican proved soon."As for the Democrats,"their clubs would be used to be rightwhen it anticipatedthat "by the courageand pru- againstus takewhat course we might." denceof thePresident, the greatest social and political revo- Moreserious, perhaps, was the potentialfor oppositionin lutionof the age will be triumphantlycarried through in the thearmy, especially by McClellaniteofficers in theArmy of midstof a civil war."

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