55: The Road to The Emancipation Proclamation

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“The Proclamation is the drawing of a sword that can never be sheathed again.” This is the story of the Emancipation Proclamation. Anti-slavery, moderate-Republican President Abraham Lincoln has never liked slavery. He wants to prevent it from expanding to new US territories. But he also never intended to go on the offensive against the “peculiar institution” within those states where it already exists. The Illinois Rail-Splitter knows the law; he’s aware that the constitution protects slavery at the state level. Then the Civil War came. As the South breaks away from the Union, the North breaks philosophically on slavery. The abolitionists say ending slavery must be a war aim. The Democrats and border-states say this war is only about preserving the Union. Moderate Republicans and still others are mixed. Meanwhile, enslaved Americans within the Confederacy are seeking refuge in Federal army camps. How should Union Generals respond? Can they give sanctuary without upsetting the border-states that may still join the Confederacy? And do seceded states still have constitutional rights? Or does war mean the president can use his constitutional war powers to end slavery among rebelling states by proclamation? And if he does … what will that outcome be? The questions are boundless. The answers are unknowable without taking the plunge. Your move, President Lincoln. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:06.1	Welcome to History that doesn't suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.
1:13.6	It's Sunday morning, July 13, 1862. Some of the most influential Americans alive are riding together in the presidential carriage.
1:22.9	Secretary of State William Henry Seward, who's accompanied by his daughter-in-law, Anna Seward,
1:28.6	the heavily-bearded secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells, and of course, the bearded gangly rail splitter,
1:35.2	President Abraham Lincoln. And I assume a somber mood hangs over them. They're unwrapped to the funeral
1:41.7	for Edwin Stanton's infant son, Jamie, at the same cemetery where the remains of 11-year-old
1:46.8	Willie Lincoln await transportation back to Illinois. Yeah, talk about it time to mourn.
1:55.2	But the needs of a nation in the midst of a civil war never sleep, so as the horses clop along,
2:00.5	pulling them down the road, heavy-hearted Lincoln continues to talk business. He shares a truly
2:06.5	controversial idea with his companions. He's considering issuing a presidential proclamation
2:12.1	that would legally emancipate those enslaved within the Confederacy.
2:17.0	The rebels do not cease to persist in their war on the government and the union.
2:21.6	The high pitched president declares,
2:24.4	I have dwelled earnestly on the gravity, importance, and delicacy of the movement.
	...

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