Abraham Lincoln Inaugural Address Essay
Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation …show more content…
Lincoln makes it very clear which specific states are included in the emancipation. He also says that the states under Union control should be left alone as if the proclamation was never issued. Border States are unaffected just as much as the Union states are. It is not a full victory for slaves because only a portion of them have freedom. Another important thing to note is that Lincoln technically freed slaves that he had no power of because they were in states that had already succeed from the union. At that point in time only Jefferson Davis had the power to abolish slavery in the south. Essentially those slaves would only be free if the Union were to win the war. However, the proclamation was still a foot in the right direction.
The document is highly significant. It was the start of the perplex road to abolition. It could be seen as a domino effect of what was to come in the future. The 13th amendment was passed and ratified into the constitution just two years after this proclamation. The 13th amendment would formally abolish and prohibit slavery forever. Therefore, this presidential proclamation was the first giant step towards giving hope to the American people who called again and again for freedom for those people still under