Emancipation Proclamation Dbq

The Emancipation Proclamation was a major decision on our leaders parts, the issue of slavery had long been discussed and argued over. To the point, that the South ceded from the United States to attempt to keep slavery and soon raised arms to protect the right to hold slaves. Soon after, the Union raised their defenses and the Civil War exploded into our nation. While the war, wore on the President finally came to a decision to present and issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which would allow slaves to be free men. However it has been noted that President Lincoln, though tried twice to issue this, had a separate goal of issuing it. The Confederates were groveling to get foreign nations to join the war on their side, and the President wanted
Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd, 1862. It stipulated that if the Southern states did not cease their rebellion by January 1st 1863, then the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect. When the Confederacy did not yield, the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect. Lincoln justified the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure intended to cripple the Confederacy. Being careful to respect the limits of his authority, Lincoln applied the Emancipation Proclamation only to the Southern states in rebellion. Lincoln’s advisors did not initially support the E.P. When President Lincoln first proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet in the summer of 1862Proclamation to his cabinet in the summer of 1862, many of the cabinet secretaries were apathetic, or worse, worried that the Proclamation was too radical. It was only Lincoln’s firm commitment to the necessity and justice of the Proclamation, along with the victory at Antietam which finally persuaded his cabinet members to support him. President Lincoln had first proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet in July 1862, but Secretary of State William Seward suggested waiting for a Union victory so that the government could prove that it could enforce the Proclamation. Although the Battle of Antietam resulted in a draw, the Union army was able to drive the Confederates out of Maryland – enough of a “victory,” that Lincoln felt comfortable issuing the Emancipation just five days later. Up until September 1862, the main focus of the war had been to preserve the Union. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation freedom for slaves now became a legitimate war aim. Britain and France had considered supporting the Confederacy in order to expand their influence in the Western Hemisphere. However, many Europeans were against slavery. Although some in the United Kingdom saw the