On August 19,
1862, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, a leading
abolitionist, published “The Prayer of Twenty Millions,” a
public letter to President Lincoln. The editor
complained that the populace of the loyal states (the “Twenty
Millions”) was “sorely disappointed and deeply
pained by the policy you [Lincoln] seem to be pursuing with
regard to the slaves of the Rebels.” In particular, Greeley
chastized the president for inadequate execution of the Second
Confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, which freed all slaves coming
under Union military jurisdiction who were owned by rebel
masters.
On August 22, the president
responded to Greeley in a public letter, which
appeared in the September 6 issue of Harper’s Weekly
(published August 27). Lincoln asserted that his goal was to
save the Union, disagreeing with those who placed either
preserving or abolishing slavery above it. “If I could save the
Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could
save the Union by freeing all the slaves I would do it. And if
I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I
would also do that.” He ended by repeating his “oft-expressed
personal wish that all men every where could be free.”
In the same September 6, 1862 issue,
Harper’s Weekly published a cartoon by Henry
Louis Stephens spoofing Greeley’s “The Prayer of Twenty
Millions” letter. In the foreground, Greeley gestures grandly
as he dramatically dictates the correspondence to his
assistant. In the left background, a group of men sing, “We
Ain’t Coming, Father Abraham.” Their chorus refers to President
Lincoln’s request on July 1, 1862, that loyal state governors
recruit 300,000 volunteers for the Union military. In order to
support the president’s plea for more troops, James Sloan
Gibbons wrote “We Are Coming, Father Abraham,” a patriotic
poem first published in the New York Evening Post
on July 16 and soon set to music. In the cartoon, Greeley’s
singers reject the call to arms. Inclusion of a black man among
them reflects the policy of the Second Confiscation Act and
Militia Act of 1862, both of which authorized the president to
use black Americans in the Union military. The group on the
right includes a black boy, a Quaker (note the dark,
wide-brimmed hat), and an old man. In cartoons of the day, an
umbrella held by a man was often a symbol of weakness or
effeminacy.
Unknown to Greeley and other critics of the
president, Lincoln had informed his cabinet on July 22, 1862,
that he would issue an emancipation order based on his authority
as commander-in-chief. With the Union military suffering
setbacks in early 1862, Secretary of State William Henry Seward
feared that its prompt announcement could be interpreted as an
act of desperation. Therefore, Seward convinced the president
to wait until after a major Union victory before declaring the
policy, so that it would be based on a position of military
strength. Accordingly, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s
invasion of the North was repelled at the battle of Antietam on
September 17, Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation five days later on September 22, 1862.
Harper’s Weekly printed the
document in its issue dated October 4, 1862
(published September 24). The Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation declared that if the Confederacy did not cease its
rebellion by the first of the year, then all the slaves in
Confederate-held territory would be freed. It excluded slaves
in the loyal Border States of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and
Missouri, and in Southern areas controlled by the Union military
on that date (Tennessee and parts of Louisiana and Virginia).
Therefore, it would affect only slaveowners in disloyal areas.
The policy was aimed at inducing the Confederacy to surrender
rather than lose its slaves, and it was based on what Lincoln
considered to be a president’s war power: increased
constitutional authority as commander-in-chief during a national
emergency.
The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
begins with Lincoln’s promise to encourage Congress again to
allocate funds for states enacting compensated emancipation
plans (whether gradual or immediate) and for the voluntary
colonization abroad of all black Americans (free blacks as well
as freed slaves). The document drew attention to a
congressional act of March 13, 1862, forbidding the return of
fugitive slaves by Union military personnel, and of sections 9
and 10 of the Second Confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, which
freed all slaves coming into Union military jurisdiction and
also forbid their return to slavery. By calling for the full
enforcement of the Second Confiscation Act, Lincoln authorized
the use of black troops in the Union military.
The next issue of Harper’s Weekly,
dated October 11, 1862 (published October 1), ran a cartoon by
Frank Bellew about the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation, “Lincoln’s Last Warning.” In it, an ax-wielding
Lincoln threatens to chop down the tree of slavery unless
Confederate President Jefferson Davis agrees to come down from
it.
In the annual presidential message to
Congress of December 1, 1862, a month before the Emancipation
Proclamation took effect, Lincoln proposed three constitutional
amendments related to slavery: 1) federal compensation to
states voluntarily abolishing slavery by 1900; 2) federal
compensation to slave-owners; and, 3) federal funds for the
voluntary colonization of American blacks abroad. The proposals
were largely ignored or criticized, and none were introduced
into Congress.
The lead editorial in the
December 13, 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly (published
December 3) commented on the presidential message. In the
“Emancipation” section, the editorialist (probably managing
editor John Bonner) pointed out that the Border States appeared
no closer to adopting compensated emancipation than they were
eight months before when Congress passed the president’s
resolution offering federal funds for the
policy. The editorial noted that Lincoln did not intend the
proposed amendments to undercut the authority of the soon-to-be
promulgated Emancipation Proclamation. The writer ended by
again arguing that colonization was impractical and, with
sarcastic wit aimed at colonization advocates, that most blacks
do not want to leave the United States because it was their
native land of which they were patriotically fond.
A cartoon in the December
20, 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly poked fun at Lincoln’s
proposed constitutional amendment for gradual emancipation by
1900. In it, black Americans who had been preparing to
celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863,
react to a banner declaring that emancipation has been postponed
for 37 years.
As largely expected, none of the
Confederate states accepted Lincoln’s offer to put down their
arms in return for securing slavery within the Union.
Therefore, the president signed the Emancipation Proclamation on
January 1, 1863, and it was printed in the
Harper’s Weekly issue dated January 17 (published January
7). In it, Lincoln emphasized his authority as
commander-in-chief and that the emancipation order was a “fit
and necessary war measure.” The loyal Border States—Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri—and the former Confederate
state of Tennessee (then under Union control) did not fall under
the jurisdiction of the Emancipation Proclamation. He also
excluded the counties that would soon become the state of West
Virginia and, by name, certain other counties in Virginia and
Louisiana, then under Union control. Because of the common fear
in the South of race warfare, Lincoln admonished the freed
slaves not to resort to violence. He then affirmed that former
slaves would be accepted into Union military service.
The lead editorial in the
previous week’s Harper’s Weekly, published on the eve of
the proclamation (December 31), emphasized the importance of the
presidential order to the recruitment of black troops. The
editorialist (probably John Bonner) judged that the Emancipation
Proclamation “merely affirms and consolidates the policy which
as hitherto been pursued by individual commanders from military
considerations.” Nevertheless, the writer predicted, “the
number of runaways will increase as our armies advance and the
[naval] blockade is tightened,” some perhaps emboldened by the
Emancipation Proclamation.
A double-page cartoon by
Thomas Nast from the January 24, 1863 issue of Harper’s
Weekly celebrated the Emancipation Proclamation. The
centerpiece is a reunited family of former slaves living in
middle-class comfort (note the portrait of Lincoln on the
wall). On the right, are depictions of other benefits of
emancipation, such as public education and paid employment,
which are contrasted on the left by the heartless slave
auctions, which divided families, and the brutal punishment
slaves suffered. In the small circular in the center
foreground, Father Time holds the Baby New Year, who unshackles
a black man.
The Emancipation Proclamation’s declaration
of freedom for slaves in Confederate-held territory and its
approval of using black men in the Union military meant that to
the original federal war aim of restoring the Union was added
the goal of liberating those still held as slaves. As Union
military forces advanced across the South, thousands of slaves
were freed. In the February 21, 1863 issue of Harper’s
Weekly, an illustration by a Union soldier
depicted slaves crossing into freedom behind Federal lines in
Newbern, North Carolina. In his letter to the
newspaper, the soldier estimated that there were about 120
slaves in the group, and reported that they said, “it was known
far and wide that the President had declared the slaves free.”
A news column, “Domestic Intelligence,” in the December 17, 1864
issue included an item estimating the number of
slaves freed to that date by Union policies.
An important consequence of the
Emancipation Proclamation was the recruitment of black
servicemen. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black men had
served in the Union armed forces as soldiers, sailors, or
laborers. An illustration from the March 14,
1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly showed black troops engaged
in battle at Island Mound, Missouri.
Although criticized by some at the time and
later for its limited nature, the Emancipation Proclamation
quickly assumed the status of a revered symbol of American
liberty. An advertisement in the June 25, 1864
issue of Harper’s Weekly solicited for agents to sell
copies of it to the public. |
1)
August 19, 1862, New York Tribune,
“Prayer of Twenty Millions” 2) September 6, 1862, p. 563, c. 3-4
“Domestic Intelligence” column, “The President on the Negro Question”
3) September 6, 1862, p. 576
cartoon,
untitled, Greeley’s “The Prayer of Twenty Millions,” Henry Louis Stephens
4)
“We Are Coming, Father Abraham,” poem
5) October 4, 1862, p. 627, c. 2-3
“Domestic
Intelligence” column, “The Abolition of Slavery”
6) October 11, 1862, p. 656
cartoon,
“Lincoln’s Last Warning,” Frank Bellew
7) December 13, 1862, p. 786, c. 1-2
editorial, “The Message,” section 2, “Emancipation”
8)
To the first paragraph of “Gradualism,
Compensation, and Colonization” section of the commentary
9) December 20, 1862, p. 816
cartoon,
untitled, John McLenan
10) January 17, 1863, p. 34, c. 1
announcement, text of the Emancipation Proclamation
11) January 10, 1863, p. 18, c. 1-2
editorial, “Negro Emancipation”
12) January 24, 1863, pp. 56-67
cartoon,
“Emancipation Proclamation,” Thomas Nast
13) February 21, 1863, p. 116
illustration,
“The Effects of the Proclamation”
14) February 21, 1863, p. 119
article, “The
Effects of the Proclamation”
15) December 17, 1864, p. 811, c. 3
“Interesting Items” column
16) March 14, 1863, pp. 168-169
illustration,
“A Negro Regiment in Action”
17) June 25, 1864, p. 414, c. 2
advertisement, “Emancipation Proclamation”
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