The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves that were being held in rebel territory, right? Well, wasnt’ the Confederacy a country of its own? What right gave Lincoln to free slaves outside of his jurisdiction?
Thanks all answers
Originally posted 2010-05-28 05:15:32.
The southern states were still part of the Union at that time. They didn’t secede until after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
The Confederate government was not recognized as a legitimate or sovereign entity. According to the United States, the Confederate states were still part of the United States. Those states were within the jurisdiction of the United States. Furthermore, the right to do so was given by the historical factor that ultimately decides political outcomes: raw power. The United States won the war against the Confederacy, thereby ensuring that the Emancipation Proclamation would be enforced in the southern states.
Actually it was 1863 and until the southern states were reunited at the end of the war, it did not count. It counted in the border states, like Missouri, which stayed with the Union but was a slave state. Some others were, I think Maryland and Kentucky.
He considered it his jurisdiction, he did not recognize the Confederate States of America as a separate country, that is what the war was really about.
The Confederate States of America was not recognized as an independent country. The U.S. government regarded the South’s secession as illegal, so Lincoln, as president, still had jurisdiction over the Confederacy as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy.
The Emancipation Proclamation consisted of two executive orders–the first was issued in September 1862 and declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederacy that refused to return to Union control by January 1, 1863.
So, it was a threat, that Lincoln had the right to make as Commander In Chief.
The point was that the Confederacy did not have legal standing in the eyes of the United States. Technically, the Confederate states were illegally ignoring Federal Law.
It also meant that in those states, as the Union forces occupied them, the slaves were freed. It empowered the US Army to free slaves in Confederate territory, and gave hope to slaves in those Confederate (or Rebel) territories that if they could escape to Union territory, they would be free.
Technically anyone can Proclaim anything. That doesn’t make it true. For example: I proclaim that every person in Texas shall eat only Blue Bell ice cream, ha, take that Borden!
So know I am sure that everyone will do as I say because I have proclaimed it!