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Was the emancipation proclamation legal? Obviously it was moral but did Lincoln have the authority to issue it?
Was the emancipation proclamation legal? Obviously it was moral but did Lincoln have the authority to issue it?
Yes he did. He declared the Confederate states under martial law and so the remaining areas not under Union control he shrewdly offered emancipation in an effort to undermine the Confederate war effort. The territories already militarily seized by Union forces were free by default. Even if it were not legal, Lincoln had a stacked Congress who would have made it legal for him. 😀
Didn't it just free the slaves in rebelous areas of the south. Not all slaves were free untill the 13th. admendment. I don't think that slaves in the border states were freed. Also I belive that ir read something as to “the states rebelous against the Union”. So I think in his eyes these states were rebelous, yet still part of the Country.
Sorry to repost. Besides could it of been that he was looking at the fact that : untill this time the war was over freedom, turning it into a war about slaves helped insure that neither Englang or France would give aid to the south.
Didn't it just free the slaves in rebelous areas of the south. Not all slaves were free untill the 13th. admendment. I don't think that slaves in the border states were freed. Also I belive that ir read something as to "the states rebelous against the Union". So I think in his eyes these states were rebelous, yet still part of the Country.
Yes you are correct except for where ambitious generals like Benjamin Butler were freeing slaves in New Orleans and other districts under his command. The slaves then in turn joined up to fight for the Union. So technically they were not yet freed, but in actuality they were. Let's put it this way, the Union did not enforce the old slave codes in Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and the other places that were under Union control as the war wore on. 😉
