“And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
Abraham Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation (Primary source)
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War, declaring that all persons held as slaves within the states and parts of states then in rebellion against the United States “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The document took effect on January 1, 1863, after Lincoln had first announced a preliminary version on September 22, 1862, giving the Confederate states an opportunity to return to the Union before emancipation became effective.
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“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
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“The law of nature is, do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“A man is worthy of praise or blame solely on account of those actions which lie within his power to do or not to do.”
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— Charlie Munger Primary source“A new-born government must dazzle.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte DisputedEnslavement Politics Liberty American Civil War