The Emancipation Proclamation Research Paper

During the height of the Civil War, when slavery was common, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a way to help the Union which was struggling to win the war. He had the idea that it would cripple the Confederacy. Although not everyone agreed with it at first, Lincoln issued the proclamation which would bring about a turning point in both the aim and outcome of the Civil War. During the beginning of the Civil War and the first few years of his presidency, Lincoln had no intention of putting an end to slavery. In his first inaugural address he stated, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, …show more content…
The Battle of Antietam, for example, had less impact than the other two steps, but it still contributed to the cause. The Confederate “loss” helped to discourage European countries from supporting the South since they didn’t want to support a lost cause. Later on, the preliminary proclamation would extinguish all support that Britain and France had for the South since they were against slavery. Something more important that the Battle of Antietam achieved was that it gave Lincoln the chance to issue the preliminary proclamation. Besides preventing Britain and France from assisting the Confederacy, the preliminary proclamation also started a transfer of the war aim. In Lincoln’s House Divided speech he stated, “ "We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed" He may not have known it when he gave the speech, but when he issued the preliminary proclamation he made the Civil War the crisis that would have to be reached and passed. Besides the other accomplishments of the preliminary proclamation, its main purpose was to prepare the country for the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation is easily the most influential out of the three steps. It changed the war aim and brought help from the South to the North. In doing that, the proclamation brought victory to the Union in the Civil War. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln said, “That we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish