Episode 56 - Ending the Cursed Institution

This episode covers how President Lincoln shifted the purpose of the Civil War from preserving the Union alone to ending the institution of slavery. Students will learn about the contraband policy at Fort Monroe, Lincoln's August 1862 letter to Horace Greeley, why he waited for the strategic victory at Antietam to act, the preliminary proclamation of September 22, 1862, the final proclamation of January 1, 1863, and the role of 180,000 Black soldiers and 20,000 Black sailors in Union service.

Key Takeaways

When the Civil War began in 1861, Lincoln's stated goal was to preserve the Union rather than to abolish slavery; in his August 1862 letter to Horace Greeley, he wrote that if he could save the Union without freeing a single slave he would do so.
General Benjamin Butler's contraband policy at Fort Monroe in May 1861 set the wartime precedent by treating escaped slaves as enemy property the Union was not obligated to return; by fall 1862 between 50,000 and 60,000 Southern slaves had crossed Union lines.
Lincoln drafted emancipation as a wartime measure earlier in 1862, but held it back until the Union had a battlefield success; Antietam on September 17, 1862 gave him the strategic victory he needed.
The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862; the final proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863 and applied only to slaves in states still in rebellion, not to those in border states or Union-occupied regions.
The proclamation opened the door for Black men to serve in Union forces; more than 180,000 served in the Army and another 18,000 to 20,000 served in the Navy. Universal abolition of slavery was secured only after the war by the Thirteenth Amendment.

Questions & Answers (FAQ):

Q1: What did the Emancipation Proclamation actually do?

The Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared free all enslaved people in states then in rebellion against the United States. It was issued as a wartime military command, not as a universal abolition law. It did not free slaves in the loyal border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia) or in regions of Confederate states already under Union control, because those areas were not in rebellion. It also opened the door to enlisting Black men into the Union Army and Navy, which transformed the war.

Q2: Why didn't Lincoln free all slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation?

Lincoln issued the proclamation under his war powers as commander in chief, not as a domestic abolition statute. That power reached only into territory at war with the United States. Freeing slaves in the loyal border states by executive order would have exceeded his constitutional authority and risked driving Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri into the Confederacy. Universal abolition required a constitutional change, which came after the war with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.

Q3: What was the contraband policy?

The contraband policy emerged in May 1861 at Fort Monroe, Virginia, where Union General Benjamin Butler refused to return three escaped slaves to a Confederate officer who came to claim them under the Fugitive Slave Act. Butler reasoned that because Virginia had seceded, he no longer owed the act compliance, and the three men, being used to build Confederate fortifications, were 'contraband of war' the Union was free to seize. The policy was formalized in Congress and by mid-1862 between 50,000 and 60,000 Southern slaves had crossed Union lines under it.

Q4: Why did Lincoln wait until after Antietam to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?

Lincoln had drafted the proclamation by July 1862, but Secretary of State William Seward warned him not to issue it from a position of military weakness. Earlier in the summer, the Union had lost two major campaigns in Virginia: the Seven Days Battles and the Second Battle of Manassas. Northern morale was low. Lincoln agreed to wait for a Union victory. The strategic outcome of Antietam on September 17, 1862, which halted Lee's invasion of Maryland, gave him the opening. Five days later, on September 22, he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Q5: How many Black soldiers served in the Union during the Civil War?

More than 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army during the Civil War, organized into United States Colored Troops regiments after the Emancipation Proclamation. Another 18,000 to 20,000 Black sailors served in the Union Navy. They participated in more than 400 engagements. Frederick Douglass, two of whose sons served in the Army, argued that Black military service was inseparable from the case for citizenship and full freedom after the war.

A War for the Union, Not Yet for Emancipation

Abraham Lincoln had long opposed slavery. When the war broke out, however, his mind was not on abolishing slavery but on the preservation of the Union. 'The central idea pervading this struggle,' he wrote, 'is the necessity that is upon us of proving that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle this question now whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.' Then came the fall of 1862. Some seventeen months after the first shots at Fort Sumter, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and shifted the focus of the war.

The International Stakes

As the Civil War developed, no less than the entire experiment with republican government was at stake. In Europe, conservatives resented the American upstarts where liberals hoped that America, by succeeding, would blaze a trail of liberty for peoples everywhere. In the American North, Union soldiers cared mainly for ending the Confederate rebellion. The war was not only about restoring the Union; its outcome would have international consequences. As one Ohio private wrote in his diary, 'Should we fail, the onward march of liberty in the old world will be retarded at least a century, and monarchs, kings, and aristocrats will be more powerful against their subjects than ever.'

Greeley, Contraband, and the Slow Shift

Well over a year into the war, Lincoln's public rhetoric had not changed significantly. In August 1862 he wrote the editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley: 'My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.' Earlier in the summer, however, the president had begun to consider emancipation as a wartime command. There were several major reasons. Starting in May 1861, slaves began to cross Union military lines to seek refuge. General Benjamin Butler, a Northern Democrat, was the first Union officer to deal with the matter.

Three Virginia slaves were going to be taken by their owner to North Carolina to help build a Confederate fort. Instead, they escaped to Fort Monroe, which was under Butler's command. Butler found it absurd to return the runaways under the Fugitive Slave Act. Since Virginia had seceded from the Union, Butler thought he no longer had a constitutional obligation to return the three men. He treated them as contraband: property that would otherwise be used by the enemy against the Union. By the early fall of 1862, between 50,000 and 60,000 Southern slaves had crossed Union lines and were accepted as wartime contraband.

Antietam Opens the Door

A second change in circumstances helped set the stage for emancipation. If Union soldiers began the war by giving little or no consideration to slavery, that changed as they moved into the American South and witnessed firsthand the plight of the slaves. As one Michigan sergeant wrote his wife from Georgia, 'The more I learn of the cursed institution of slavery, the more I feel willing to endure for its final destruction.

After this war is over, this country will undergo a change for the better. Abolishing slavery will dignify labor. That fact of itself will revolutionize everything.' Lincoln's opportunity emerged in September of 1862 as one final crucial factor fell into place. Earlier that summer, the Union had lost two major campaigns in Virginia: the Seven Days Battles near Richmond and the Second Battle of Manassas. As a result, Northern morale was low. Lincoln did not want to issue emancipation from the weakened position those losses left him in. While he had always been anti-slavery, in order to unite Northerners around emancipation he needed a victory. And it came with Antietam. While the September battle ended inconclusively, Lincoln declared it a strategic victory since Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North was halted.

The Proclamation and What It Did Not Cover

Just a few days after Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, first in its preliminary form on September 22, 1862, then in a final form on January 1, 1863. In that second iteration, not only was emancipation defined as 'an act of justice and military necessity,' it opened the door for Black soldiers and sailors to be enlisted by the Union.

It was not, however, intended as a universal law covering all slaves. The proclamation was issued as a wartime military command, which is crucial to understanding its reach. Only slaves in states that were in rebellion were declared free. Slaves in border states and in regions of Confederate states already under Union control were not freed. The London Times found Lincoln's action hypocritical and impotent: 'Where he has no power, Mr. Lincoln will set the Negroes free. Where he retains power, he will consider them as slaves.'

Anti-War Reaction and the Path to the Thirteenth Amendment

Emancipation forged fierce anti-war and anti-Lincoln sentiment among Democrats. Samuel Medary, editor of the Crisis newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, decried Lincoln's command as 'monstrous, impious, and heinous, insulting to God as to man, for it declares those equal whom God created unequal.' Such Democratic attacks galvanized Republicans. So did the growing role played by Black servicemen.

Over 180,000 would serve in the Union Army. Another 18,000 to 20,000 served as sailors in the Union Navy. Some abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, had hoped the Emancipation Proclamation would be more sweeping. But Douglass, who had two sons serving in the Union Army during the war, thought Lincoln's action helped change the course of the war to becoming a war to end slavery entirely. Universal freedom from slavery, however, was only secured in full after the war with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.