September 16, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the 30th Episode of our Story of America Series with Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, Bill reads and explains one of President Lincoln's greatest accomplishments—The Emancipation Proclamation.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next another
installment are thirtieth of our series about Us the Story
of America series with Hillsdale College professor and author of
Land of Hope, professor Bill McLay. By eighteen sixty two,
the Civil War was in full bloody swing from Antietam
to Shiloh to Fredericksburg. Lincoln had gone through general after
(00:33):
general after general, and the situation was bleak. It was
amidst all of this that Lincoln decided to take on
another monumental task, emancipation. Let's get into the story take
it away.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Bill Lincoln was not only a statesman, but a master politician,
and he understood that it was always perilous to get
too far ahead of public sentiment and opinion.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Weighing all of these things, Lincoln decided.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
In July of eighteen sixty two that the.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Government should adopt a strong anti slavery position, one that
could be justified on military and diplomatic ground. He knew
that freed slaves could and would fight in the war
on the Union side.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
He also knew that abolition.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Would bring support from the foreign capitals of the world,
a huge diplomatic victory or the Union. As a constitution man,
Lincoln would have vastly preferred for the Confederate States to
abolish slavery on their own, but that didn't happen, wasn't
likely to happen, and Lincoln was now prepared to use
the power of his office, his power as commander in
(01:47):
chief under the Constitution, explicitly by the Constitution itself, used
that power to begin the process of ending slavery.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Discussions with his cabinet about such a bold move met
with mixed reactions.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Some feared absolute chaos in the South for an intervention
precisely what Lincoln did not want. Others, like Secretary of
State William Seward, thought it was a good.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Idea, but thought the timing was wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Better to wait until a big victory or two before
announcing such a thing. Lincoln actually followed Seward's advice. It
was a mere five days after Antietam, on September twenty second,
eighteen sixty two, that Lincoln made public the first part
of what has come to be called the Emancipation Proclamation.
(02:40):
Like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which was notoriously short, a mere
two hundred and seventy two words, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was
a bit longer, at seven hundred and nineteen words, but
they were words that changed America, changed our history, changed
our way of life.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
They're worth reading.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
All persons held as slaves within any state or designating
part of a state, the people whereof shall then be
in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward
and forever free. And the executive Government of the United States,
(03:29):
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no
act or acts to repress such person or any of them,
in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
There it is.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It's a rather lawyerly state, as befits the man who
proclaimed it. And yet it's important to note here why
proclamation was actually a very limited one. It didn't free
slaves everywhere in the United States, just Confederate states during
the Civil War, which meant that theoretically Southern states had
(04:14):
ended their involvement in the war could keep their slaves.
This is an important point because it's how they can
justify as constitutional his efforts on behalf of abolition.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
And let's get back to the proclamation, They can continue.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That the Executive will, on the first day of January
fourth said by proclamation designated the states and parts of States,
if any in which the people thereof, respectively, shall be
in rebellion against the United States, And the fact that
any state or the people thereof, shall on that day
be in good faith represented in the Congress of the
United States.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
By members chosen there too at elections.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We're in a majority of theified voters of such state
shall have participated, shall, in the absence.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Of strong countervailing testimon it.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Be deemed conclusive evidence that such state.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And the people thereof are not then in rebellion against
the United States. Now, Therefore, I Abraham Lincoln, President of
the United States, by virtue of the power in me
vested as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy
of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion
against the authority and government of the United States, and
(05:32):
as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion,
on this first day of January and the year of
our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and sixty three, and
in accordance with my purpose to do so, publicly proclaimed
for the full period of one hundred days from the
day first above mentioned order designated to states and parts
(05:54):
of states, wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day
and rebellion against the United States, the following to it Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, and which accepted parts
(06:15):
are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation
were not issued, and by virtue of the power and
for the purpose of force, in I do order and
declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated
states and parts of states, are, and henceforward shall be free,
and that the executive Government of the United States, including
(06:37):
the military and naval authorities thereof, well recognize and maintain
the freedom of such persons.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And I hereby enjoying.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Upon the people so declared to be free, to have
stained from all violence, unless in necessary self defense.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And I recommend to them.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That, in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for
reasonable way. And I further declare and make none that
such persons a suitable condition will be received into the
armed Force of the United States. The Garrison, forts, physicians
stations at other places, and demand vessels.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Of all sorts in said serb.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And upon this ax itscerely believed to be an act
of justice warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I
invoke the considerate judgment of mankind to the gracious favor
of Almighty God. A witness thereof I have hereunto set
my hand and cause the seal of the United States
(07:38):
to be affixed down in the City of Washington's first
day of January, the year of our Lord hundred and
sixty three and of the Independence of the United States
of America, the eighty seventh, by the President Abraham Lincoln
William H. Sewart, Secretary of State. Now, there were many
(08:01):
critics who waited for something more definitive and were complete
from Lincoln on the issues of slavery, something more rousing,
something more magnificent, something that rivaled some of the more
beautiful and powerful language of the Declaration of Independence, something
that would clearly and dramatically end the institution of slavery
(08:25):
once and for all. But this criticism missed the point
of Lincoln's genius. Lincoln was careful not because he was
a coward, but because he wanted slavery ended in the
right way, and that meant compliance with the Constitution. The
words by any means necessary were not in Lincoln's vocabulary.
(08:50):
He had too much regard and respect for the founders.
He knew that an amendment to the Constitution was the
right way to go, the proper way to go, the
fitting way to go, and the constitutional way to go.
Despite his profound misgivings about the moral tragedy and moral
crime of slavery, he revered the Constitution more than he
(09:16):
hated slavery, and it might be useful to add he
revered the Constitution because he realized that without the Constitution,
the Constitution were bredig tossed aside as so much tissue
standing in the way of progress.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
The result might.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Have led to a smembered nation that was incapable of
sustaining individual liberties such as they were founded in the
Bill of Rights, let alone effect the difficult task of
abolishing slavery. So the Emancipation Proclamation came at the right time,
and it had the right moral tone that shifted the
(09:57):
purpose of the war.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
It made the war about bigger things.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Ilinka would make the same point much more pointedly at
his Gettysburg address in November of eighteen sixty three. The
war after the Emancipation Proclamation and then after Gettysburg was
no larger just about preserving the Union.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
It was about something so much bigger, and a terrific.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Job on the production and editing by our own Monty Montgomery,
himself a Hillsdale College graduate and Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay,
author of Land of Hope, and the best line of
all in this piece. He revered the Constitution more than
he hated slavery, and the way forward was a constitutional amendment.
The story of the Emancipation Proclamation. Here on our American
(10:48):
Stories
And we returned to our American stories. Up next another
installment are thirtieth of our series about Us the Story
of America series with Hillsdale College professor and author of
Land of Hope, professor Bill McLay. By eighteen sixty two,
the Civil War was in full bloody swing from Antietam
to Shiloh to Fredericksburg. Lincoln had gone through general after
(00:33):
general after general, and the situation was bleak. It was
amidst all of this that Lincoln decided to take on
another monumental task, emancipation. Let's get into the story take
it away.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Bill Lincoln was not only a statesman, but a master politician,
and he understood that it was always perilous to get
too far ahead of public sentiment and opinion.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Weighing all of these things, Lincoln decided.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
In July of eighteen sixty two that the.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Government should adopt a strong anti slavery position, one that
could be justified on military and diplomatic ground. He knew
that freed slaves could and would fight in the war
on the Union side.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
He also knew that abolition.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Would bring support from the foreign capitals of the world,
a huge diplomatic victory or the Union. As a constitution man,
Lincoln would have vastly preferred for the Confederate States to
abolish slavery on their own, but that didn't happen, wasn't
likely to happen, and Lincoln was now prepared to use
the power of his office, his power as commander in
(01:47):
chief under the Constitution, explicitly by the Constitution itself, used
that power to begin the process of ending slavery.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Discussions with his cabinet about such a bold move met
with mixed reactions.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Some feared absolute chaos in the South for an intervention
precisely what Lincoln did not want. Others, like Secretary of
State William Seward, thought it was a good.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Idea, but thought the timing was wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Better to wait until a big victory or two before
announcing such a thing. Lincoln actually followed Seward's advice. It
was a mere five days after Antietam, on September twenty second,
eighteen sixty two, that Lincoln made public the first part
of what has come to be called the Emancipation Proclamation.
(02:40):
Like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which was notoriously short, a mere
two hundred and seventy two words, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was
a bit longer, at seven hundred and nineteen words, but
they were words that changed America, changed our history, changed
our way of life.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
They're worth reading.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
All persons held as slaves within any state or designating
part of a state, the people whereof shall then be
in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward
and forever free. And the executive Government of the United States,
(03:29):
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no
act or acts to repress such person or any of them,
in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
There it is.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It's a rather lawyerly state, as befits the man who
proclaimed it. And yet it's important to note here why
proclamation was actually a very limited one. It didn't free
slaves everywhere in the United States, just Confederate states during
the Civil War, which meant that theoretically Southern states had
(04:14):
ended their involvement in the war could keep their slaves.
This is an important point because it's how they can
justify as constitutional his efforts on behalf of abolition.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
And let's get back to the proclamation, They can continue.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That the Executive will, on the first day of January
fourth said by proclamation designated the states and parts of States,
if any in which the people thereof, respectively, shall be
in rebellion against the United States, And the fact that
any state or the people thereof, shall on that day
be in good faith represented in the Congress of the
United States.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
By members chosen there too at elections.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We're in a majority of theified voters of such state
shall have participated, shall, in the absence.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Of strong countervailing testimon it.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Be deemed conclusive evidence that such state.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And the people thereof are not then in rebellion against
the United States. Now, Therefore, I Abraham Lincoln, President of
the United States, by virtue of the power in me
vested as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy
of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion
against the authority and government of the United States, and
(05:32):
as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion,
on this first day of January and the year of
our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and sixty three, and
in accordance with my purpose to do so, publicly proclaimed
for the full period of one hundred days from the
day first above mentioned order designated to states and parts
(05:54):
of states, wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day
and rebellion against the United States, the following to it Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, and which accepted parts
(06:15):
are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation
were not issued, and by virtue of the power and
for the purpose of force, in I do order and
declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated
states and parts of states, are, and henceforward shall be free,
and that the executive Government of the United States, including
(06:37):
the military and naval authorities thereof, well recognize and maintain
the freedom of such persons.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And I hereby enjoying.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Upon the people so declared to be free, to have
stained from all violence, unless in necessary self defense.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And I recommend to them.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That, in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for
reasonable way. And I further declare and make none that
such persons a suitable condition will be received into the
armed Force of the United States. The Garrison, forts, physicians
stations at other places, and demand vessels.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Of all sorts in said serb.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And upon this ax itscerely believed to be an act
of justice warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I
invoke the considerate judgment of mankind to the gracious favor
of Almighty God. A witness thereof I have hereunto set
my hand and cause the seal of the United States
(07:38):
to be affixed down in the City of Washington's first
day of January, the year of our Lord hundred and
sixty three and of the Independence of the United States
of America, the eighty seventh, by the President Abraham Lincoln
William H. Sewart, Secretary of State. Now, there were many
(08:01):
critics who waited for something more definitive and were complete
from Lincoln on the issues of slavery, something more rousing,
something more magnificent, something that rivaled some of the more
beautiful and powerful language of the Declaration of Independence, something
that would clearly and dramatically end the institution of slavery
(08:25):
once and for all. But this criticism missed the point
of Lincoln's genius. Lincoln was careful not because he was
a coward, but because he wanted slavery ended in the
right way, and that meant compliance with the Constitution. The
words by any means necessary were not in Lincoln's vocabulary.
(08:50):
He had too much regard and respect for the founders.
He knew that an amendment to the Constitution was the
right way to go, the proper way to go, the
fitting way to go, and the constitutional way to go.
Despite his profound misgivings about the moral tragedy and moral
crime of slavery, he revered the Constitution more than he
(09:16):
hated slavery, and it might be useful to add he
revered the Constitution because he realized that without the Constitution,
the Constitution were bredig tossed aside as so much tissue
standing in the way of progress.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
The result might.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Have led to a smembered nation that was incapable of
sustaining individual liberties such as they were founded in the
Bill of Rights, let alone effect the difficult task of
abolishing slavery. So the Emancipation Proclamation came at the right time,
and it had the right moral tone that shifted the
(09:57):
purpose of the war.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
It made the war about bigger things.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Ilinka would make the same point much more pointedly at
his Gettysburg address in November of eighteen sixty three. The
war after the Emancipation Proclamation and then after Gettysburg was
no larger just about preserving the Union.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
It was about something so much bigger, and a terrific.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Job on the production and editing by our own Monty Montgomery,
himself a Hillsdale College graduate and Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay,
author of Land of Hope, and the best line of
all in this piece. He revered the Constitution more than
he hated slavery, and the way forward was a constitutional amendment.
The story of the Emancipation Proclamation. Here on our American
(10:48):
Stories
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