Did the Emancipation Proclamation really free the slaves and did Lincoln have the legal right to declare an end to slavery?
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave. It was politics, not principle. Issued at a time when the Confederacy seemed to be winning the war, Lincoln hoped to transform a disagreement over secession into a crusade against slavery, thus preventing Great Britain and France from intervening on the side of the South. The proclamation allowed slavery to continue in the North as well as in Tennessee and large parts of Louisiana and Virginia. He applied this proclamation only to Confederate held slaves, which Lincoln had no authority over, but not to slaves under Federal control. The constitution would be subverted in order to “declare” slavery ended. If the emancipation proclamation was such a law to set the slaves free, why did it not follow the flow of governmental checks and balances and why did it not cover the slaves of the North? Would not that be illegal? Lincoln has gone down through history with these quotes on slavery: “If all earthy power was given
