Dr. King on Emancipaton

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It is also a day of even greater historical importance because of the Second Inauguration of President Barack Obama. Whether one is a republican or democrat, Inauguration days are historic events for our nation. I think this post is very appropriate for today.


I posted a link to this speech in my post on the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, but I wanted to post the text of it as well. What follows is the text from remarks given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Dr. King's words ring true as they speak of the powerful impact of the proclamation on the course of freedom in the United States.

Dr. King presented the following speech at the New York Civil War Centennial Commission’s Emancipation Proclamation Observance, New York City, September 12, 1962

Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Address

If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power and how malignant their evil.

The Declaration of Independence proclaimed to a world, organized politically and spiritually around the concept of the inequality of man, that the dignity of human personality was inherent in man as a living being. The Emancipation Proclamation was the offspring of the Declaration of Independence. It was a constructive use of the force of law to uproot a social order which sought to separate liberty from a segment of humanity.
Our pride and progress could be unqualified if the story might end here. But history reveals that America has been a schizophrenic personality where these two documents are concerned. On the one hand she has proudly professed the basic principles inherent in both documents. On the other hand she has sadly practiced the antithesis of these principles.

If we look at our history with honesty and clarity we will be forced to admit that our Federal form of government has been, from the day of its birth, weakened in its integrity, confused and confounded in its direction, by the unresolved race question. We seldom take note or give adequate significance to the fact that Thomas Jefferson’s text of the Declaration of Independence was revised by the Continental Congress to eliminate a justifiable attack on King George for encouraging slave trade…Jefferson knew that such compromises with principle struck at the heart of the nation’s security and integrity. In 1820, six years before his death, he wrote these melancholy words:

"But this momentous question (slavery), like a fire bell in the night awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776 to acquire self-government and happiness to their country is to be thrown away, and my only consolation is to be that I live not to weep over it."

The somber picture (of the condition of the American Negro today) may induce the sober thought that there is nothing to commemorate about the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. But tragic disappointments and undeserved defeats do not put an end to life, nor do they wipe out the positive, however submerged it may have become beneath floods of negative experience.

The Emancipation Proclamation had four enduring results. First, it gave force to the executive power to change conditions in the national interest on a broad and far-reaching scale. Second, it dealt a devastating blow to the system of slaveholding and an economy built upon it, which had been muscular enough to engage in warfare on the Federal government. Third, it enabled the Negro to play a significant role in his own liberation with the ability to organize and to struggle, with less of the bestial retaliation his slave status had permitted to his masters. Fourth, it resurrected and restated the principle of equality upon which the founding of the nation rested.

When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation it was not the act of an opportunistic politician issuing a hollow pronouncement to placate a pressure group.
Our truly great presidents were tortured deep in their hearts by the race question. Jefferson with keen perception saw that the festering sore of slavery debilitated white masters as well as the Negro. He feared for the future of white children who were taught a false supremacy. His concern can be summed up in one quotation, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”

Lincoln’s torments are well known, his vacillations were facts. In the seething cauldron of ‘62 and ‘63 Lincoln was called the "Baboon President" in the North, and "coward", "assassin" and "savage" in the South. Yet he searched his way to the conclusions embodied in these words, "In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve." On this moral foundation he personally prepared the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, and to emphasize the decisiveness of his course he called his cabinet together and declared he was not seeking their advice as to its wisdom but only suggestions on subject matter. Lincoln achieved immortality because he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. His hesitation had not stayed his hand when historic necessity charted but one course. No President can be great, or even fit for office, if he attempts to accommodate to injustice to maintain his political balance.

The Emancipation Proclamation shattered in one blow the slave system, undermining the foundations of the economy of the rebellious South; and guaranteed that no slave-holding class, if permitted to exist in defeat, could prepare a new and deadlier war after resuscitation.

The Proclamation opened the door to self-liberation by the Negro upon which he immediately acted by deserting the plantations in the South and joining the Union armies in the North. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, seeing a regiment of Negroes march through Beacon Street in Boston, wrote in his diary, “An imposing sight, with something wild and strange about it, like a dream. At last the North consents to let the Negro fight for freedom.” Beyond the war years the grim and tortured struggle of Negroes to win their own freedom is an epic of battle against frightful odds. If we have failed to do enough, it was not the will for freedom that was weak, but the forces against us which were too strong.

We have spelled out a balance sheet of the Emancipation Proclamation, its contributions and its deficiencies which our lack of zeal permitted to find expression. There is but one way to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation. That is to make its declarations of freedom real; to reach back to the origins of our nation when our message of equality electrified an unfree world, and reaffirm democracy by deeds as bold and daring as the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

September 22, 1862: "Then, Thenceforward, and Forever Free..."

“When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined, as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation… I said nothing to anyone; but I made the promise to myself and to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise.”

Abraham Lincoln, September 22, 1862

150 years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, signaling a beacon of hope in the darkness for over four million people held in bondage, and signalling the death knell of slavery in the United States. The road toward freedom would not be complete with one proclamation; the proclamation would be but the first of many steps transitioning from slavery to citizenship for African Americans. Yet, without the first step, none of the other steps would have been possible. The blood shed at Antietam on September 17 had radically transformed the country. The dead of Antietam led to "a new birth of freedom" for this country. 

 

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation.
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States, and each of the states, and the people thereof, in which states that relation is, or may be suspended, or disturbed.

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave-states, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which states, may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate, or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent, or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the Governments existing there, will be continued.

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.

That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled "An act to make an additional Article of War" approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figure following:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:
Article-. All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor, who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage.
Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following:
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, 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 persons 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.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act, and sections above recited.

And the executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States, and their respective states, and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.
L.S.

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 twenty second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, and of the Independence of the United States, the eighty seventh.

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

"The Will of God Prevails"

Abraham Lincoln could have stopped the Civil War at any moment. He could have pulled back Federal forces, allowing the Confederacy to go its separate way. But he didn't. Lincoln believed that there were forces at work in the nation during those four years which went far beyond his own powers to act. In short, as the war dragged on, and as more wives became widows and children became orphans, Lincoln began to turn to God for answers.

The paragraph below was written by Lincoln in September of 1862. Historians have not yet specified exactly when it was written in the month, but it is generally believed to be from those pivotal late summer days in 1862 when the fate of the nation, and the freedom of millions, hung in the balance. The words below were written privately by the president. In the words of Lincoln's secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay, these words were "not written to be seen of men." It was found by Hay in Lincoln's desk, and thus preserved for posterity. It shows the thought processes of the 16th President at a crucial time in American history. During September, 1862, the fate of the nation rested on the events in Maryland. Sitting in the president's desk was a proclamation declaring emancipation for all those enslaved in the states then in rebellion. He simply needed a victory to issue the document. Lincoln was hoping that victory would come in Maryland. As Lincoln later told Salmon Chase, “I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven back… I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves.”

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect (sic) his purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, he could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.

In 1865, standing in front of the U.S. Capitol after winning his reelection, and just weeks before he would be shot down by the cowardly John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln proclaimed in his Second Inaugural Address that the Civil War was God's way of affecting change upon the nation and ridding it of the scourge of slavery. The seeds for that address, one of the most famous and brilliant in American history, were being sown in the tumultuous month of September, 1862.

The Road to Antietam, July 22, 1862: "Thenceforward, and Forever, Be Free"

150 years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln introduced to his cabinet what would become the greatest presidential act in American history. The stage was being set for the Battle of Antietam to become not only a battle for military supremacy, but to be a battle for the future of freedom in the United States.

(Library of Congress)

Throughout his political career, Abraham Lincoln was opposed to the institution of slavery. A leading member of the nascent Republican Party, Lincoln campaigned on limiting the spread of slavery; yet, there was little he could do regarding slavery on a national level for most of his political life. Whether in the Illinois State Legislature, or during his one term in the United States Congress, Lincoln lacked the power or ability to affect change on slavery in any meaningful way. Illinois was a state with extremely harsh laws limiting rights and freedoms for free blacks, and Southern Illinois was quite similar to many Southern states when it came to attitudes on race and slavery. Yet, through the power of his rhetoric, Lincoln was able to craft a convincing argument that slavery was a moral wrong that undermined the legitimacy of the United States' claim to be a republic of liberty. In his famed Peoria, Illinois address of 1854, responding to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln proclaimed his hatred for both slavery and those who were indifferent to it: "This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world."

During the seventh of his famed debates with Senator Stephen Douglas in 1858, Lincoln culminated a series of arguments by making the case for the moral injustice of slavery and tyranny. Speaking of Chief Justice Roger Taney's opinion in the Dred Scott case, Lincoln declared that if slavery was a moral wrong, which he insisted it was, then owning slaves could not be considered a natural right from God.

But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality, slaves should be allowed to go in a new Territory, like other property. This is strictly logical if there is no difference between it and other property. If it and other property are equal, his argument is entirely logical. But if you insist that one is wrong and the other right, there is no use to institute a comparison between right and wrong. You may turn over every thing in the Democratic policy from beginning to end, whether in the shape it takes on the statute book, in the shape it takes in the Dred Scott decision, in the shape it takes in conversation, or the shape it takes in short maxim—like arguments—it every where carefully excludes the idea that there is any thing wrong in it. That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.

Four years after these debates, in 1862, Lincoln was the President of the United States, guiding the nation through a fiery trial of war, deciding whether the country would live or die. He was no longer a Congressman from Illinois; he was now the president, and thus, had more power to deal with the issue of slavery. Yet, under the Constitution, he was still limited in what he could do. As the casualties mounted, Lincoln sought a way to not only gain something of a military advantage, but to make a broader statement about the war itself. Lincoln could have stopped the bloodshed at any moment by simply allowing the Confederacy to go its separate way. Yet, he maintained the war, believing deeper issues to be at stake. He clearly saw a link between death on the battlefield and life for the nation; it was not enough for lives to be sacrificed just so that the country could continue on as it once was, a nation marred by the injustice of slavery, an institution rooted in moral wrong. For Lincoln, this bloodshed needed to lead to "a new birth of freedom."



On July 13, 1862, while on his way to a funeral for the son of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln struck up a conversation regarding the possibility of bringing emancipation into the Civil War with several of his cabinet members. Various Union generals had been dealing with slaves through martial edicts and policies, but these generally only applied to specific localities. Lincoln also found fault with them because, as he believed, such policy needed to be set at the national level so as to make sure it was in accordance with constitutional law and the policy of his administration. Congress had acted against slavery in other ways as well, passing the First Confiscation Act in 1861, and the Second Confiscation Act in July of 1862. These were meant to deal with those slaves who made their way to Federal lines, making it legal for commanders to bring them in and treat them like contraband property being seized in a war. Yet, on this summer morning carriage ride to a funeral, Lincoln stressed several times that a possible Emancipation Proclamation might be needed as a military necessity to turn the war around, inspiring the Union war effort with new life. Those officials who rode with Lincoln that July morning were not the only ones who sensed that the president was on the verge of a history altering policy. On July 20, 1862, one of Lincoln's private secretaries, John Hay, wrote in a letter, “… he will not conserve slavery much longer. When next he speaks in relation to this defiant and ungrateful villainy it will be with no uncertain sound.”



Two days after Hay wrote those words, Lincoln gathered his cabinet on July 22, 1862, 150 years ago today, to introduce a proclamation of emancipation, using his executive authority to free slaves in those states then in rebellion against the Federal government. As Lincoln later explained, "I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before them." The rough draft document he introduced that day is as follows, and can be found in the Library of Congress:

In pursuance of the sixth section of the act of congress entitled “An act to suppress insurrection and to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes” Approved July 17, 1862, and which act, and the Joint Resolution explanatory thereof, are herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim to, and warn all persons within the contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, aiding, countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion against the government of the United States, and to return to their proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and seizures, as within and by said sixth section provided.

And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure for tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection, of any and all States which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining the authority of the United States, and which may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, gradual abolishment of slavery within such State or States—that the object is to practically restore, thenceforward to be maintain[ed], the constitutional relation between the general government, and each, and all the states, wherein that relation is now suspended, or disturbed; and that, for this object, the war, as it has been will be, prosecuted. And, as a fit and necessary military measure for effecting this object, I, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do order and declare 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 states, wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained, shall then, thenceforward, and forever, be free.

The statement began by referencing the recently passed Second Confiscation Act, which required an executive action for it to begin taking effect. That act provided for the seizure of property belonging to those in active rebellion against the Federal government. Lincoln at first believed that with that executive action, he would issue his proclamation, and the above text was designed to that purpose. Essentially, Lincoln at first believed this was a measure which would be issued within days, not months.

He began his second paragraph by referencing his attempts to bring about compensated emancipation, a plan aimed at pursuing the abolition of slavery while maintaining political support for his administration and the war in the Border States. This plan was a tough sell, as it not only would have cost a great deal, but was politically risky in many of these areas. He also included language that would apply such compensated emancipation to those states in rebellion, perhaps as an olive branch to bring about both and end to the fighting and pushing towards the abolition of slavery in a peaceful manner.

Lastly, in the above section italicized (done by me), Lincoln declared his intention to issue a military order under his power as Commander in Chief declaring all slaves in those states in rebellion on January 1, 1863, to "then, thenceforward, and forever, be free." In both of the Confiscation Acts, Congress had essentially declared that because of the war, Federal forces could legally seize Confederate property, including slaves. Now, Lincoln was going one step further. Under his authority as Commander in Chief, he was using his war powers to declare that all slaves held as Southern property (using Southern slavery arguments claiming that slaves were indeed property against slave owners) would be freed. This measure not only had obvious moral benefits of hammering at the foundations of slavery, but would provide a practical benefit of weakening the Southern power structure by removing a significant labor force, hurting the South politically, economically, and socially.


With those words, Lincoln effectively introduced the widest ranging executive measure in American history. The reaction of his Cabinet was somewhat mixed. Attorney General Edward Bates and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase were the first to speak, and each was supportive, although Chase questioned the effectiveness of the measure, suggesting it could lead to retaliatory actions against slaves throughout the South. Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster General, objected to the proclamation, believing it would have a negative effect and cost Lincoln significant support in the fall Congressional elections.

It was Secretary of State William Seward, a long standing opponent of slavery, who offered the most significant comments in response to the proclamation. Believing that recent military setbacks on the Peninsula and in the Shenandoah Valley had a strong effect on the North, Seward reasoned, “The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step.” Thus, Seward suggested that issuing the proclamation following a string of defeats would smack of desperation, depriving the measure of its full impact. As Seward also argued, "It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help...." It would be best, Seward noted, to wait for a Federal victory, only issuing the document once Lincoln could "give it to the country supported by military success" (Allen Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, 130-137).

While Lincoln began by announcing his intention to issue the proclamation one way or another, he never said anything about timing. Based on this cabinet meeting, as well as on a visit from Seward and Republican Thurlow Weed that evening, Lincoln decided that waiting for a victory was the best course of action. It would be a wait much longer than he ever intended. During his wait, thousands more would be added to the death toll of the war. Lincoln himself began to question God's purpose in the conflict. By September of 1862, Lincoln saw his opportunity to finally issue his proclamation. He would later explain that when Lee's army crossed the Potomac River to begin the Maryland Campaign, Lincoln made a promise to himself and to God that should the Confederate army be turned back, he would have the victory he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam would not just be fought as a military contest; it would be fought as a contest between the forces of freedom and slavery, determining the future of each in the United States. The stage was set for all of this 150 years ago today, on July 22, 1862.

1862

Now that it is 2012, I would first like to wish everyone a happy new year. As 2011 has given way to 2012, the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War has also turned a page. The upcoming year will mark the sesquicentennial of 1862, what was in many ways the turning point of the conflict on many different fronts. While 1861 saw the beginning of the war, 1862 saw the war evolve into an event which forever changed America.


At the turning of the year, things did not look good for the Union cause. For starters, international events were going against Union interests. After two Confederate diplomats were seized on the RMS Trent in November, 1861, tensions were high between the U.S. and Great Britain, leading many to fear the outbreak of hostilities between the two nations. As Lincoln sat in the Executive Mansion, he was faced with the threat of not only trying to win the war against the Confederacy to reunite the Union, but to also solve a grave international diplomatic crisis. While the Lincoln administration decided to release the two Confederate diplomats in late December, 1861, tensions were still high. Many foresaw Britain eventually recognizing the Confederacy as an independent nation, a move which could possibly be seconded by France. If such European support were to materialize for the Confederacy, it would make the reunification of the country all but impossible. By the late summer months, Britain and France were on the verge of recognizing the South.


On the military front, George McClellan's Union forces in and around Washington were still idle after many months of planning. On New Year's Eve, 1861, several members of the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, as well as several Cabinet Members, tried to make their case to Lincoln that McClellan should be removed and Irvin McDowell reinstated to command the Union forces around Washington. Political fighting was growing exponentially in Washington, as the newly created Committee on the Conduct of the War began expanding its presence in the Union war effort. The North had the resources and manpower to put down the rebellion, yet the task of combining manpower, resources, generals, strategy, tactics, and leadership to form a victory still remained unfinished. Many throughout the North still looked to George McClellan to accomplish this task. McClellan embodied a strategy of moderation in dealing with the South. He was strongly opposed to emancipating slaves, and thought that the war could be one with one grand Napoleonic battle, after which the nation could reunite without having to undergo a bloody, revolutionary struggle. However, another man would make a greater and remarkably different mark on the strategy of the Union armed forces in the war. In February, this man achieved his first Civil War victories at two outposts in the west: Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. His demands would embody the victory which Union armies ultimately won in 1865: "Unconditional Surrender." That man was U.S. Grant. Grant's rise and McClellan's fall were major consequences of 1862.


For the Confederacy, at the start of 1862, Joseph Johnston in the east and Albert Sydney Johnston in the west were tasked with trying to fend off upcoming Union advanced with inferior numbers. Over the next few months, each general would face the trial of battle. Ultimately, the fate of both Joe Johnston and Albert Sydney Johnton would lead to dramatic changes for the South. Joe Johnston's failure in the Peninsula Campaign led to the rise of Robert E. Lee in the Eastern Theater, and Albert Sydney Johnston's demise at Shiloh led to the instability which plagued Confederate generals in the West. At the start of 1862, Stonewall Jackson was charged with protecting the Shenandoah Valley, a crucial bread basket for the Confederacy. While Jackson had already earned his famed sobriquet of "Stonewall" at first Manassas, his 1862 exploits in the Shenandoah Valley and at Second Manassas and Antietam made him the legend we know today.


In January of 1862, for 4 million slaves in the South, the question of freedom was yet to be decided. Despite the fact that the "irrepressible conflict" had arrived, and despite the fact that many recognized that slavery was indeed at the heart of the national crisis, the issue of slavery itself remained relatively unscathed. Union generals Benjamin Butler and John C. Fremont had tried in their own way to impact the matter in 1861. Butler refused to return slaves who made their way to Union lines at Fortress Monroe in Virginia; Fremont declared martial law for Missouri in August, including emancipation for slaves, which Lincoln ordered him to amend so as to conform with existing Federal law. In early August of 1861, Congress passed the Confiscation Act, declaring that Southern property used in the rebellion was liable to be seized by Federal forces. Because slave owners viewed their slaves as property, this act therefore allowed for the Federal confiscation of Southern slaves. These various proclamations, declarations, and acts represented small and individual attempts to deal with the overriding question of slavery, yet as 1861 turned to 1862, the matter of slavery and freedom still hung in the balance for millions. The events of the upcoming year would ultimately place American slavery on the path towards extinction.


All of these issues were dramatically affected by what occurred in 1862. In many ways, 1862 was the most important of the Civil War, and perhaps, one of the most important years in American history. During that year, America saw fundamental transformations. 150 years ago, in January of 1862, the nation was on the verge of revolutionary events that would make the upcoming year an epochal moment in American history. 1862 was the year where the moderate strategy of George McClellan fell apart, and the demands of "Unconditional Surrender" Ulysses S. Grant became the rallying cry for the nation. 1862 was the year when the nations of Europe began to realize that their recognition of the Confederacy would never become a fait accompli. 1862 was the year when Abraham Lincoln would lose a son to illness, but rise as one of the greatest statesmen the world has seen. 1862 was a year when new meaning was infused into the soil at places such as Shiloh, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Finally, and most importantly, 1862 was the year which gave birth to emancipation, renewing the promise of freedom set forth in the Declaration of Independence. As Abraham Lincoln wrote that December:

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."

Lincoln's words contain the true importance of 1862; it was a year which forever changed the future of freedom in America. Over the next 12 months, these will be the events to remember as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of 1862 and the American Civil War.