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From: "Diana Boothe" <>
Subject: [AR-CIVIL-WAR] This Day In History
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 09:55:56 -0600

1863 Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issues the
Emancipation Proclamation, calling on the Union army to liberate all slaves
in states still in rebellion as "an act of justice, warranted by the
Constitution, upon military necessity." These three million slaves were
declared to be "then, thenceforward, and forever free." The proclamation
exempted the border slave states that remained in the Union at the start of
the Civil War and all or parts of three Confederate states controlled by the
Union army.

As a Republican politician, Lincoln had fought to isolate slavery from the
new territories, not outlaw it outright, and this policy carried over into
his presidency. Even after the Civil War began, Lincoln, though he privately
detested slavery, moved cautiously on the emancipation issue. However, in
1862, the federal government began to realize the strategic advantages of
emancipation: The liberation of slaves would weaken the Confederacy by
depriving it of a major portion of its labor force, which would in turn
strengthen the Union by producing an influx of manpower.

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• [AR-CIVIL-WAR] This Day In History by "Diana Boothe" <>