THE QATSPY® Opening the Files of History for Retro Perspective

By: Charles W. Boatright

President Lincoln’s Stroke of His Pen- Sealed His Fate, but It Reaffirmed the Declaration of Independence that All Men are Created Equal

President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862 issued a preliminary outline of what would become the Emancipation Proclamation that he actually signed on New Year’s Day of 1863. Signing the Emancipation Proclamation took  tremendous political courage that help to seal his fate on April 15, 1865, just after the Civil War had ended.

Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 01, 1863 came on the heels of the worst defeat for the Union forces at the Battle of Fredericksburg, on December 13, 1862. The Civil War wasn’t exactly going in Lincoln’s favor. The Union Army just lost 12,000 soldiers, either killed or wounded, under the command of General McClellan. There were suggestions that Lincoln should settle for peace.

The Copperhead Democrats who opposed the Emancipation Proclamation also opposed the war and wanted instead to restore The Union, by allowing slavery to remain.

 

Lincoln was a part of a new Republican party that first wanted to keep the Union together, as well, but also wanted to resolve the slavery issue. But President Lincoln put his Presidency on the line when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

On June 19, 1865, word of the Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas and was first celebrated on June 19, 1866. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was done with a stroke of his pin and upheld what Thomas Jefferson wrote four score and seven years ago (87- years) in 1776:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Abraham Lincoln wasn’t the Key Note speaker at the dedication of the Battlefield of Gettysburg.

President Lincoln on How to perform under pressure: The Gettysburg Address