Editing Abraham Lincoln (section)

====Emancipation Proclamation====
{{Main|Abraham Lincoln and slavery|Emancipation Proclamation}}

<imagemap>
File:Emancipation proclamation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''[[First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln]]'', an 1864 portrait by [[Francis Bicknell Carpenter]]<small>'' (clickable image—use cursor to identify)''</small>|alt=A dark-haired, bearded, middle-aged man holding documents is seated among seven other men.

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Before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, two Union generals issued their own emancipation orders, but Lincoln overrode both: he found that the decision to emancipate was not within the generals' power, and that it might upset loyal border states enough for them to secede.{{sfn|Guelzo|1999|pp=290–291}} However, in June 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery in all federal territories, which Lincoln signed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/this-abominable-slavery/page/7_1_ab|title=The United States Congress outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude in all U.S. territories, June 20, 1862|accessdate=April 28, 2025|work=This Abominable Slavery|publisher=University of Utah}}</ref> In July, the [[Confiscation Act of 1862]] was enacted.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 2 p. 357}} Its section 9 freed slaves "within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States". On July 22, 1862, Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet.{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=364–365}} Copperheads argued that emancipation was a stumbling block to peace and reunification, but Republican editor [[Horace Greeley]] of the ''[[New-York Tribune]]'', in his public letter, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", implored Lincoln to embrace emancipation.{{sfnm|McPherson|1992|1p=124|Lundberg|2019|2p=116}} In a public letter of August 22, 1862, Lincoln replied to Greeley, writing that while he personally wished all men could be free, his first obligation as president was to preserve the Union:{{sfn|Guelzo|2004|pp=147–153}}

{{Blockquote|My paramount object in this struggle ''is'' to save the Union, and is ''not'' either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing ''any'' slave I would do it, and if I could save it 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.<ref name=anb/>}}

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation,{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 2 pp. 468&ndash;469}} freeing the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/emancipation-proclamation|title=Emancipation Proclamation (1863)|date=August 16, 2021 |publisher=National Archives}}</ref> with exemptions specified for areas under such control.{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=379}} Lincoln's comment on signing the Proclamation was: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper."{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=407}} On New Year's Eve in 1862, Black people – enslaved and free – gathered across the United States to hold Watch Night ceremonies for "Freedom's Eve", looking toward the promised fulfillment of the Proclamation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 19, 2019 |title=The historical legacy of Juneteenth |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth |publisher=National Museum of African American History and Culture}}</ref> With the abolition of slavery in the rebel states now a military objective, Union armies advancing south "enable[d] thousands of slaves to escape to freedom".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McPherson |first1=James M. |title=Who freed the slaves? |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=March 1995 |volume=139 |issue=1 |page=9|jstor=986716}}</ref> 

As Lincoln had hoped, the Proclamation removed the threat that countries that opposed slavery, especially Britain and France, would support the Confederacy.{{sfn|Jones|1995}} The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperheads, who opposed the war and advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0032.105/--lincoln-s-critics-the-copperheads?rgn=main;view=fulltext|title=Lincoln's critics: the Copperheads|last=Weber|first=Jennifer|volume=32|issue=1|journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association|date=Winter 2011|pages=33&ndash;47|doi=10.5406/19457987.32.1.05}}</ref> It was also seen as a betrayal of his promise to Southern Unionists not to tamper with slavery; [[Emerson Etheridge]], then [[Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|Clerk of the House of Representatives]], joined an unsuccessful plot to give Democrats and Southern Unionists control of the House.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 2 p. 591}} As a result of the Proclamation, enlisting freedmen became official policy. In a letter to Tennessee military governor [[Andrew Johnson]], Lincoln wrote, "The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once".{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=431}}