The Emancipation Proclamation alone makes America the most powerful nation on earth.

[Octafish]

One of the greatest documents of all time, a cornerstone of our democracy: the Emancipation Proclamation codifies the ideal that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator certain with certain inalienable rights, specifically: Freedom.



I was reminded of this important fact by a discussion on NPR this afternoon. Translation:

January 1, 1863

By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SOURCE: http://www.nps.gov/ncro/anti/emancipation.html

Contrast the Party of Lincoln where each individual is more important than even the power of the State itself with today's GOP and their enablers of whatever cowardly stripe where "Money trumps peace."

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. The Emancipation Proclamation allowed slaves in Northern States to remain property.

Those states in rebellion were not under his authority until after the civil war, so nobody was freed in those states, either. The Emancipation Proclamation did not cause a slave rebellion, which appeared to be its major intent.

It did undercut the Dred Scott Decision where southern slaves were concerned. But slaves in non rebellion states were still required to be rounded up and returned to those who owned them.

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

The Constitution is the Cornerstone of what we are, and it codified the right of the rich to own people. It required a civil war, the thirteenth, and fourteenth amendments to change that. And it wasn't until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the major ty the work was finished.

[Octafish]

3. Thank you. You are absolutely correct.

I understand the Constitution to be a living document that has grown and been adapted successfully to the changes in the nation's understanding of what it means to be a citizen. In posting, I wanted to make clear the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation in our nation's development as a place where ideas matter and where people matter more than things.

'Watch Nights,' A New Year's Celebration Of Emancipation

by Allison Keyes
NPR.org
Published: December 29, 2012

EXCERPT...

What The Proclamation Actually Did

Reginald Washington, African-American records specialist at the National Archives, says the Emancipation Proclamation didn't immediately free any slave.

Washington says the proclamation applied only to areas where the federal government had no control or ability to enforce its provisions. The document that actually freed the slaves was the 13th Amendment.

The proclamation, however, changed the character of the conflict from a war to preserve the union to a war for human liberation. Washington says when President Lincoln started to sign it, he hesitated.

SOURCE: http://m.npr.org/news/front/2100752

Thus, to me, the Emancipation Proclamation is more than just a document outlining the federal government's position in a time of civil war. It demonstrated to the world that human life is more important than property in the United States. I believe this idea would be to the minds of those classes empowered with wealth, position, power a revolutionary thought.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. Not to quibble; but ...

One of the greatest documents of all time, a cornerstone of our democracy: the Emancipation Proclamation codifies the ideal that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator certain with certain inalienable rights, specifically: Freedom.

No isn't not and no it didn't. The EP, while granting freedom from involuntary servitude for those slaves in the "rebel states", did not include those held in the nothern and/or non-seceding south.

Further, it was silent as to the OP's primary claim:

the Emancipation Proclamation codifies the ideal that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator certain with certain inalienable rights

[Octafish]

4. No quibble. You are correct. The 13th Amendment...etc. etc. etc.

I got it. Most importantly, thank you for taking the time to weigh in and clear up the record.

Here's where I got my idea an interview with Lonnie Bunch of the National Archives with Michel Martin of NPR

Seeing how so few Americans living in today's material world slow down long enough to consider the import of the world of ideas, I wanted to remind DUers about Lincoln putting his ideas about the Civil War and its purpose into policy.

The comparison of Lincoln with his political descendants was clumsy, but important, considering the conservatives in power have done all they could to roll back political, social, and economic justice.

Finally, I hope others will discover the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation as the embodiment of an idea, sort of what Jorge Luis Borges called hrönir in "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," ideas that come to mind and later appear as objects to become the every day reality.