How an ambivalent man became the champion of antislavery

 JUNETEENTH: HOW AMERICA’S FIRST GOP PRESIDENT FREED THE DEMOCRATS’ SLAVES (substack.com)

How an ambivalent man became the champion of antislavery

"Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, was the first president of the newly-formed Republican Party.  The Republican Party was created in 1854 from an anti-slavery coalition of the Whig Party, the Free-Soiler Party and American Party (AKA Know-Nothings).  The new party argued that free market labor was superior to slavery and was the very foundation of civic virtue and true Republicanism.

"As the Civil War raged on, President Lincoln offered the Confederate States a chance to surrender.  He issued a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, a year & a half after the war began.  It stipulated, if the Southern states did not cease their rebellion by January 1, 1863, the proclamation would go into effect.

"Hearing nothing from the Confederacy, President Lincoln issued his proclamation on January 1, 1863 which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

"Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was 719 hand-written words.  The most significant part reads as follows:

By the President of the United States of America:

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

. . .JUNETEENTH: HOW AMERICA’S FIRST GOP PRESIDENT FREED THE DEMOCRATS’ SLAVES (substack.com)