The Emancipation Proclamation Issued on January 1863

This week, the readings in Perman and Taylor deal in various aspects with the question of freed slaves. When you read them, consider them holistically: in other words, see them as one seamless document. Please respond to at least three other classmates for the following questions: Q. Express what you feel is the true motivation behind the Emancipation Proclamation as it was issued on January 1, 1863. A. Once again, to better understand the September release of the Emancipation Proclamation, one needs to go back a few months. The war was dragging on, heading deeper into its second year. Although the North had seen its fair share of victories, they suffered considerable losses during the Richmond campaign and considerable embarrassment in the 7 days battle. George Templeton Strong summed up the Northern moral in July 1862 stating they were, “permeated by disgust, saturated with gloomy thinking.”[1] Naturally, there was need of a scapegoat, someone to blame. The more finger-pointing that transpires within a legion than at the enemy, the more infighting emerges then out-fighting. The discussion among Lincoln’s cabinet of the subject began in Mid-July and went on for some time without resolve. Typical Lincoln was to let his strategy debate itself within the cabinet and declare a final decision, as he did on July 22nd. Lincoln needed a new unifier for the North as the war continued. After the Peninsula battle, he called for a major expansion of the troops and without creating a sense of last ditch effort, needed to keep moral high. Congress debated the issue of slavery constitutionally and passed empty bills of confiscation, freeing slaves without a means of enforcement while riling the Border States. In addition, freed slaves in Northern garrisons were causing an ever increasing problem for the officers and thus the war department. He needed to give his commanders direction for handling of contrabands, offer a unifying direction of movement for