Emancipation Proclamation the Period Leading

Emancipation Proclamation

The period leading to the emancipation of the slaves there was intense campaign from the democrats to maintain the status quo of the slave owning states to continue owning their slaves and the Republicans maintaining a push for the abolition of the slavery and declaring freedom to each and every individual in the U.S.A. There were continued campaigns by the republicans for more states to join the union which was composed of the states that were supporting the abolitionists' sentiments and views.

The majority of the states that supported the abolition sentiments were the Northern states since they were predominantly industrial and did not own slaves and in a stark contrast the Southern states supported widely the sentiments by the Democrats to have each state do as they wished with the slaves that they had with them, either to free them or continue holding them.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a categorical document that sought to spell out the status of the U.S.A. As concerns slavery. It was to declare the people who had hitherto been held as slaves, free and forever would remain free and be protected by the executive and the military and the naval authority of the U.S.A., as well as being granted the freedom and not suppressed just like any other American who was not a slave there before. It however had the exemption states in the south where the slaves were not immediately emancipated but the proclamation was a beginning to the quest for the freedom of the slaves.

It was difficult to practically emancipate the slaves from the South until the North had a profound military success in the civil war and the proclamation was used rather as a propaganda tool to tell the world that the U.S.A. was serious about fighting slavery. Indeed it was until the election of Lincoln for his second term that he abolished in the constitution through the thirteenth amendment (Our Documents, 2011).

The proclamation also granted the free representation of the hitherto slaves in the congress in a fair and free election just like the whites who were not slaves would have access to the congress representation there before and after the proclamation (National Archives & Records Administration, 2011).

The major differences that existed were in terms of the view held by the Democrats and the Republicans about slavery. It all melted down to whether one supported slavery or not as Lincoln put it hence it was significant to make out their stand known in the series of debates, the sixth debate being one of the most explicit on the issue between Douglas and Lincoln.

The fundamental difference in policy held by Lincoln and Douglas on slavery was on the moral standing concerning the issue of slavery. Lincoln stood by the policy of slavery being morally wrong yet Douglas never took a solid stand on the morality or otherwise of the slavery, he was rather liberal about it. Lincoln emphasized that he as well as the Republicans had a strong belief that slavery was wrong and the policy against the slavery was a democratic policy and a democratic sentiment. He also held that the vice was to be fought in all the states, whether it is in the Northern Free States or the Southern slavery states, in church and in political podiums without discrimination of place of talking about ills of slavery (National Park Service, 2007).

The other issue that Lincoln addresses is the accusation by Douglas that he was a master of double speech and that he spoke pro-slavery in the Southern states and anti-slavery in the Northern states. This he said is a misconception of the intention and spirit of his speech. He says these are a few lines picked from entire speeches he gave in various areas and then the intentions blurred from the part picked out. He insisted that his spirit and drive has and always will remain against the slavery and he instantly took a stand to absolutely denounce slavery and dared Douglas to take a stand as well.

Lincoln accused Douglas of being one of the Democrats who would not take a solid stand in the matter and waivered, giving prominence to the vice by not taking a definitive stand. He however never associated the whole Democrats party to the stand taken by Douglas and indeed insinuated that there could be some Democrats who agree with his stand against slavery and should hence join him in the quest to promote the campaign against it.

Douglas on the other hand accused Lincoln of double speech between the North and the South. He puts him to task on how he would vote if a state like New Mexico would want to join the Union yet they were ready to recognize the Union with or without necessarily recognizing and endorsing slavery, and commented that Lincoln would not be committal to such issues.

On his part, Douglas believes that each state had a right just like the nation to manage it domestic affairs without external influence and one of these is the issue of slavery, that each state must be given the chance to decide whether slavery is good for their state or not, actually he advocated for the autonomy of each state to decide their internal matters independently without external influences, he said "We have enough objects of charity at home, and it is our duty to take care of our own poor, and our own suffering, before we go abroad to intermeddle with other people's business," (National Park Service, (2007).

Douglas further elaborated that his stand was in line with the constitution that was in place at that time and he spoke in accordance to the constitution and was defining the right of each state under the constitution and not of moral or religious rights, a stand that Lincoln did not agree with. Indeed he viewed the slaveholding states to be as civilized and as good in conscious as the free states and that they were not accountable to the free states but to God.

The major issue that made it hard for Lincoln to achieve his goal of absolute freedom for all the slaves by the time of the proclamation was the severity of the civil war and the predominance of the slavery in the Southern states. In order for the South to let go of the slaves, it was necessary for the North to absolutely win the war and the majority of confederate members to concede ground on the slavery issue which was not and easy thing.