“Constitutionally and politically, the Emancipation Proclamation was a profound mixture of a great statesman’s goodness, caution, and daring.”
Summary
On New Year’s Day 1863, President Lincoln signed the proclamation he had promised a hundred days before. Lincoln understood better than anyone the constitutional challenges to emancipation. He took the greatest care to draft the proclamation in terms that could be defended before the highest court in the land. Then in the last weeks of his life, he “left no means unapplied” to getting the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, approved by Congress.
Resources
- The American Story Episode 77 - The Fate of Liberty: American New Year 1777
- The American Story Episode 78 - Silver Markers on a Pew: American New Year 1942
- Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo
- “The Great Emancipation” by Michael Burlingame in the Claremont Review of Books
- “One Last Card to Play” by Peter Schramm in the Claremont Review of Books
- The Emancipation Proclamation, 1 January 1863
Credits
- Narrator: Chris Flannery
- Audio Producer: Derek Wood
- Music Supervisor: Blake Huxell
