Editing Emancipation Proclamation (section)

====Confederate response====
[[File:Negroes Leaving Home - April 9 1864 issue Harper's Weekly - uncropped, Internet Archive copy.jpg|thumb|"NEGROES LEAVING THEIR HOME: The view on page 237 illustrates a phase of the war which the rebels have found it difficult to contemplate with any complacency. The exodus of the slaves from the bondage which has so long oppressed them has been steady and continuous from the moment the first blow was struck against the national honor, and it still goes on, hundreds and thousands of the poor, outraged creatures cowing weekly into tho Union lines at all points in the field. Our sketch gives an admirable view of the desolation which surrounds the homes of the negroes, and the heartiness and energy with which they make their way to freedom upon the slightest opportunity. The Federal gun-boat, it will be seen, lies far out at sea, but the sharp eyes of the waiting, watching bondmen have caught sight of the flag she carries; they know there is shelter under it for them, and launching their little boat, they carefully put the aged and infirm, with their few more valuable effects, aboard, and, with a pang, it may be, at leaving their rude home, but with hope and joy in their hearts at the prospect of deliverance, pull away from the shore, which henceforth is to be to them only a dark dreary line marking a yet darker past. There is pathos as well as history in the picture." (''Harper's Weekly'', April 9, 1864)]]
The initial Confederate response was outrage. The Proclamation was seen as vindication of the rebellion and proof that Lincoln would have abolished slavery even if the states had remained in the Union.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Rebel Message: What Jefferson Davis Has to Say|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX-K12&p_theme=ahnp_k12&p_nbid=E59Q56PUMTMyNTY5MTAwNy4yOTAyNjM6MToxMzozOC4xMDUuOTYuMjM4&p_action=timelinedoc&p_docref=v2:11A050B7B120D3F8@EANX-11AE489CABB99E68@2401523-11AE489CB81982E0@0-11AE489D1F55ED48@The+Rebel+Message.+The+Document+in+Full.+What+Jeff.+Davis+Says+of+President+Lincoln%27s+Emancipation+Proclamation&d_doclabel=The+Rebel+Message%3A+What+Jefferson+Davis+Has+to+Say|work=New York Herald|publisher=America's Historical Newspapers|access-date=January 4, 2012}}</ref> It intensified the fear of slaves revolting and undermined morale, especially spurring fear among slave owners who saw it as a threat to their business.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Emancipation Proclamation: Striking a Mighty Blow to Slavery |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/emancipation-proclamation-striking-mighty-blow-slavery |website=[[National Museum of African History and Culture]] – Smithsonian |publisher=[[Smithsonian]] |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> In an August 1863 letter to President Lincoln, U.S. Army general [[Ulysses S. Grant]] observed that the proclamation's "arming the negro", together with "the emancipation of the negro, is the heavyest [''sic''] blow yet given the Confederacy. The South rave a greatdeel [''sic''] about it and profess to be very angry."<ref>{{cite web|quote=I have given the subject of arming the Negro my hearty support. This, with the emancipation of the Negro, is the heaviest blow yet given the Confederacy. The South rave a greatdeel about it and profess to be very angry. |first=Ulysses |last=Grant |author-link=Ulysses S. Grant |url=http://www.civil-war-tribute.com/us-grant-letter-to-lincoln-08231863.htm |location=Cairo, Illinois |title=Letter to Abraham Lincoln |date=August 23, 1863 |access-date=May 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503212700/http://www.civil-war-tribute.com/us-grant-letter-to-lincoln-08231863.htm |archive-date=May 3, 2014 }}</ref> In May 1863, a few months after the Proclamation took effect, the Confederacy passed a law demanding "full and ample retaliation" against the U.S. for such measures. The Confederacy stated that black U.S. soldiers captured while fighting against the Confederacy would be tried as slave insurrectionists in civil courts—a capital offense with an automatic sentence of death. Less than a year after the law's passage, the Confederates massacred black U.S. soldiers at [[Battle of Fort Pillow|Fort Pillow]].<ref>{{Cite book|first=Bruce|last=Tap|title=The Fort Pillow Massacre: North, South, and the Status of African Americans in the Civil War Era|publisher=Routledge|date=2013}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]] reacted to the Emancipation Proclamation with outrage and in an address to the Confederate Congress on January 12 threatened to send any U.S. military officer captured in Confederate territory covered by the proclamation to state authorities to be charged with "exciting servile insurrection", which was a capital offense.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.awb.com/dailydose/?p=822 | title=January 12, 1863: Jefferson Davis responds to the Emancipation Proclamation &#124; the Daily Dose | access-date=January 13, 2023 | archive-date=January 13, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113000330/http://www.awb.com/dailydose/?p=822 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Confederate General [[Robert E. Lee]] called the Proclamation a "savage and brutal policy he has proclaimed, which leaves us no alternative but success or degradation worse than death."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210514095239/https://leefamilyarchive.org/family-papers/letters/letters-1863/9-family-papers/1180-robert-e-lee-to-james-a-seddon-1863-january-10 Lee Family Digital Archive]</ref>

However, some Confederates welcomed the Proclamation, because they believed it would strengthen pro-slavery sentiment in the Confederacy and thus lead to greater enlistment of white men into the Confederate army. According to one Confederate cavalry sergeant from Kentucky, "The Proclamation is worth three hundred thousand soldiers to our Government at least.... It shows exactly what this war was brought about for and the intention of its damnable authors."<ref>{{Cite book|last=McPherson|first=James M.|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/forcausecomrades00mcph|url-access=registration|title=For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/forcausecomrades00mcph/page/107 107]|location=New York City|author-link=James M. McPherson|isbn=0-19-509-023-3|oclc=34912692|access-date=March 8, 2016}}</ref> Even some Union soldiers concurred with this view and expressed reservations about the Proclamation, not on principle, but rather because they were afraid it would increase the Confederacy's determination to fight on and maintain slavery. One Union soldier from New York stated worryingly after the Proclamation's issuance, "I know enough of the southern spirit that I think they will fight for the institution of slavery even to extermination."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/forcausecomrades00mcph|url-access=registration|title=For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/forcausecomrades00mcph/page/108 108]|location=New York City|author-link=James M. McPherson|last=McPherson|first=James M.|date=1997|isbn=0-19-509-023-3|oclc=34912692|access-date=March 8, 2016}}</ref>

As a result of the Proclamation, the price of slaves in the Confederacy increased in the months after its issuance, with one Confederate from South Carolina opining in 1865 that "now is the time for Uncle to buy some negro women and children...."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/forcausecomrades00mcph|url-access=registration|title=For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/forcausecomrades00mcph/page/108 108]|location=New York City|author-link=James M. McPherson|last=McPherson|first=James M.|date=1997|isbn=0-19-509-023-3|access-date=March 8, 2016|oclc=34912692}}</ref>