Emancipation Proclamation 150 Years Later

Posted: 1/4/2013

Trigger

The American Enterprise Institute published a paper by John Yoo titled “The Emancipation Proclamation's unforgettable lesson about presidential power”. The article e.g. emphasized following excerpt “The link between the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s broad view of presidential power should cause us to reflect on current controversies over the executive.”

Some Reflections On The American Civil War

Was the American Civil War really worth fighting for? Over 750,000 soldiers and a still undetermined number of civilians died because of this Civil War.

The balance of power of states vs. central government was permanently shifted towards the federal government; it was demonstrated that the Commander in Chief could subdue any state or group of states if necessary and so on.

What If Or Lessons Learnt

What would have happened if the Union had only defended against any attacks by the Confederacy instead of an all out war to defeat the rebellious Confederacy? What would have happened had the Union just ignored, but not accepted the secession of the Confederacy?

Would it not have been much cheaper in treasure and blood to just to buy off slaves from southern states? We know in hindsight that the Civil War did not end racism, which would take another 100 years and more.

Slavery Was Already Nearing Historical Extinction

Slavery would have been phased out over time anyway with or without the Civil War. Brilliant men like Abraham Lincoln should have been aware of that. Whether, the Civil War expedited this phase out is debatable and at what cost.

The Vermont constitution of 1777 was the first document in the United States to abolish slavery.

In 1807 the British abolished the slave trade with their colonies. In the Caribbean, slavery was abolished by British Parliamentary fiat, effective July 31, 1834, when 776,000 slaves in the British plantation colonies were freed and so on and so on.

It was only a matter of time …