In all of American history, second only to the Declaration of Independence there has been no more famous, no more important, and no more history-making document than the Emancipation Proclamation.
And there has been no more illegal, meaningless and misrepresented document in American history than the Emancipation Proclamation, second to none.
What? The famous Emancipation Proclamation is illegal? Meaningless and misrepresented? How can that be? Actually it’s very simple, and you won’t read it in the history books being used in our schools these days, that’s for sure. For to reveal the truth behind this document would be to show what a scheming and self-centered politician Abraham Lincoln really was, and it might just legitimize the Southern cause along the way.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
The Emancipation Proclamation is an illegal document.
This one is fairly simple. The EP is an illegal document because the president issuing it did not have legal authority over the area of the country which was addressed in the document itself. The wording of the EP states that the Proclamation affects “those states currently in rebellion against the government of the United States” or something very close to that effect. From the Yankee point of view, that view being that secession was unconstitutional and that the Southern states were still a part of the United States, the EP is legal and binding. (But if that’s the case, then why did the Southern states have to apply for re-admittance to the Union under the Johnson administration? Oh, wait, that’s for another blog!) But from the Southern point of view, the Confederate States had seceded from the United States and were now a separate, sovereign nation, and Lincoln had no legal authority over them. I guess this all hinges on whether or not secession is unconstitutional, but that point is still being argued no matter what the Supreme Court said in 1870 or thereabouts. Personally, I think secession IS constitutional, Lincoln had no authority over the Southern states, and therefore the Emancipation Proclamation is an illegal document.
The Emancipation Proclamation is a meaningless document.
This one is a no-brainer: if the EP is illegal, it is therefore meaningless. But on the larger scale, it’s a meaningless document because it only addresses slavery in the Southern states; it made no mention at all of slavery in the Northern states. While not being practiced due to the lack of need for slaves in the industrialized North, slavery was still legal in nearly all of the Northern states. Lincoln chose not to include the ENTIRE United States in his proclamation, limiting it instead to only “those states currently in rebellion.” If you’re gonna put out a document such as this, why not include the entire nation in its scope? Well, simple – this is what you do if you’re losing public support for your war effort and need something to kick-start it and gain back the support of the people. You need something that no Christian soul could possibly find fault with, something that would unite all of the Northern people behind you and your war effort. Slavery was the logical choice, and it worked like a charm.
The Emancipation Proclamation is a misrepresented document.
The Emancipation Proclamation is forever being loudly heralded by the lemming-like followers of “The Great Emancipator” as the document which put an end to slavery in the United States. As I pointed out in the previous paragraph, this is not the case. Additionally, all you have to do is read the list of amendments to the United States Constitution and you’ll find that slavery wasn’t abolished in the United States until December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. And even that is questionable, since IMHO the ratification of the 13th Amendment was illegal in and of itself. Without getting off on another tangent, it’s like this: amendments to the Constitution can only be voted on by representatives of “member states” of the Union. The stand of the Johnston administration and the majority of the Northern populace was that the Southern states would have to be “readmitted” to the Union, and therefore were not “member states” any longer. As a part of the “readmittance” program and Reconstruction, in order to be readmitted to the Union each former Confederate state would have to vote for and accept the ratification of the 13th Amendment. Since at the time of the ratification the former Confederate states were not, by admission of the Federal government, members of the United States, they were not eligible to vote on any amendment. But they did anyway, the Johnston administration accepted it, and the Federal government effectively ignored the US Constitution and allowed an illegal amendment to become law.
In the annals of federal travesties of justice, I rank this one right up there along with Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in 1862.
Of course, "historians" have ignored this little gem and have continued to proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation as THE document that abolished slavery, and have long touted Abraham Lincoln as "The Great Emancipator." All of which is historically inaccurate, of course. But then again, as Josef Goebbles, the propaganda minister for Nazi Germany, said, "If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth."
So there you have it, dear readers, the truth behind the Emancipation Proclamation in all its ugly glory. Go find that in your history books, I dare ya.
Class dismissed!
IHC
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