Editing Emancipation Proclamation (section)

===Governmental action toward emancipation===
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Image:Emancipation proclamation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''[[First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln]]'' by [[Francis Bicknell Carpenter]] (1864) {{Clickable|use cursor to identify.}}|alt=A dark-haired, bearded, middle-aged man holding documents is seated among seven other men.]]

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In December 1861, Lincoln sent his first annual message to Congress (the [[State of the Union Address]], but then typically given in writing and not referred to as such). In it he praised the free labor system for respecting human rights over property rights; he endorsed legislation to address the status of contraband slaves and slaves in loyal states, possibly through buying their freedom with federal money; and he endorsed federal funding of voluntary colonization.<ref>[https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-3-1861-first-annual-message December 3, 1861: First Annual Message: Transcript]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Striner|first=Richard|title=Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fatherabrahamlin0000stri/page/147 147–148]|isbn=978-0-19-518306-1|url=https://archive.org/details/fatherabrahamlin0000stri/page/147}}</ref> In January 1862, [[Thaddeus Stevens]], the [[History of the United States Republican Party|Republican]] leader in the [[United States House of Representatives|House]], called for total war against the rebellion to include emancipation of slaves, arguing that emancipation, by forcing the loss of enslaved labor, would ruin the rebel economy. On March 13, 1862, Congress approved an [[Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves]], which prohibited "All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States" from returning fugitive slaves to their owners.<ref>[http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/artwar.htm "Law Enacting an Additional Article of War" (the official name of the statute).]</ref> Pursuant to a law signed by Lincoln, slavery was abolished in the [[Geography of Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]] on April 16, 1862, and owners were compensated.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mann |first=Lina |title=The Complexities of Slavery in the Nation's Capital |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-complexities-of-slavery-in-the-nations-capital |access-date=2020-09-20 |website=White House Historical |language=en}}</ref>

On June 19, 1862, Congress prohibited slavery in all current and future [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States#List of organized incorporated territories|United States territories]] (though not in the states), and President Lincoln quickly signed the legislation. This act effectively repudiated the 1857 opinion of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] in the ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford|Dred Scott]]'' case that Congress was powerless to regulate slavery in U.S. territories.<ref>Guminski, Arnold. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5uFS7SOBHd8C&dq=%22June+19%2C+1862%22+slavery+Lincoln&pg=PA241 The Constitutional Rights, Privileges, and Immunities of the American People]'', page 241 (2009).
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Richardson, Theresa and Johanningmeir, Erwin. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=K_7Tba0v3ogC&dq=%22June+19%2C+1862%22+slavery+Lincoln&pg=PA129 Race, ethnicity, and education]'', page 129 (IAP 2003).
</ref> It also rejected the notion of [[popular sovereignty]] that had been advanced by [[Stephen A. Douglas]] as a solution to the slavery controversy, while completing the effort first legislatively proposed by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in 1784 to confine slavery within the borders of existing states.<ref>Montgomery, David. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=A24AAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22June+19%2C+1862%22+slavery+Lincoln&pg=PA428 The Student's American History]'', p. 428 (Ginn & Co. 1897).
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Keifer, Joseph. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=GBq0gjrfxRgC&dq=%22June+19%2C+1862%22+slavery+Lincoln&pg=PA109 Slavery and Four Years of War]'', p. 109 (Echo Library 2009).</ref>

On August 6, 1861, the [[Confiscation Act of 1861|First Confiscation Act]] freed the slaves who were employed "against the Government and lawful authority of the United States."<ref>[http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact1.htm First Confiscation Act]</ref> On July 17, 1862, the [[Confiscation Act of 1862|Second Confiscation Act]] freed the slaves "within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by forces of the United States."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/conact2.htm |title=The Second Confiscation Act, July 17, 1862 |publisher=History.umd.edu |access-date=May 29, 2011 |archive-date=August 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080806144911/http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/conact2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Second Confiscation Act, unlike the First Confiscation Act, explicitly provided that all slaves covered by it would be permanently freed, stating in section 10 that "all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such person found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact2.htm|title=The Second Confiscation Act, July 17, 1862|website=www.freedmen.umd.edu}}</ref> However, Lincoln's position continued to be that, although Congress lacked the power to free the slaves in rebel-held states, he, as commander in chief, could do so if he deemed it a proper military measure.<ref>Donald, David. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fuTY3mxs9awC&q=Second+Confiscation+Act Lincoln]'', p. 365 (Simon and Schuster, 1996)</ref> By this time, in the summer of 1862, Lincoln had drafted the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued on September 22, 1862. It declared that, on January 1, 1863, he would free the slaves in states still in rebellion.<ref name=Dear/>