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From March 31 to
August 22, 1862, General David Hunter was the Union commander of
the Department of the South, which consisted of Florida,
Georgia, and South Carolina. On May 9, 1862, he issued an order
freeing all the slaves in those states. Ten days later,
President Lincoln nullified Hunter’s emancipation order, arguing
that the general had exceeded his authority. The president’s
proclamation appeared in the May 31, 1862 issue
of Harper’s Weekly (published May 21).
According to the text, Lincoln’s prompt
response occurred before he was even sure that Hunter had
actually authorized the emancipation order that was circulating
under his name. Lincoln argued that it was not within the war
powers of military commanders to free slaves. In the
proclamation, he raised but deferred answering the question of
whether or not the president had the power of wartime
emancipation; however, in private, he expressed more assurance
that he did. To Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase he said, “No
commanding general shall do such a thing, upon my
responsibility, without consulting me.” Shortly afterward,
Lincoln remarked that there was no legal or constitutional
barrier to his authority as commander-in-chief “to take any
measure which may best subdue the enemy.” Although there is no
evidence that he had already decided in mid-May 1862 to issue a
presidential emancipation proclamation, his rescission of
Hunter’s order prepared the groundwork for it by excluding the
power from everyone in the military chain of command except the
president as commander-in-chief.
The second part of the Lincoln’s
nullification proclamation explained that on March 6, 1862,
Congress had adopted his resolution promising federal
compensation to any state enacting gradual emancipation, and the
document ended with Lincoln’s earnest plea for the proposal’s
consideration by the slave states. The congressional resolution
for gradual, compensated emancipation was primarily aimed at the
Border States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.
An editorial from the same
May 31 issue of Harper’s Weekly supported Lincoln’s
revocation of Hunter’s order by arguing that there was a need
for a uniform policy on emancipation articulated by the
president. The final paragraph of the commentary interpreted
Lincoln’s message to the slave states as “a threat and a
warning” to accept compensated, gradual emancipation or risk
having the president abolish slavery, immediately and without
compensation, under his war power. |
Introduction - John Adler, HarpWeek Publisher...
Slavery and the Secession Crisis
