What was shocking about lincoln emancipation proclamation

How did a teenager get a military weapon? Of course that would end badly. Any person with an ounce of sense knows that.

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View Obituaries Place an Obituary Celebrations. Home Drive Working. Filed under: Columnists Commentary. The spirit of the Emancipation Proclamation is under attack again today. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Columnists In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary. Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. The Latest. By Sun-Times Wire. These compromises produced an uneasy balance between the Northern and Southern states that put off war between these sections over slavery.

Lincoln also agreed with Clay that slavery, if confined to the Southern states, would eventually die away as the national economy changed. Lincoln believed that American democracy meant equal rights and equality of opportunity.

But he drew a line between basic natural rights such as freedom from slavery and political and civil rights like voting. He believed it was up to the states to decide who should exercise these rights. Before the Civil War, both Northern and Southern states commonly barred women and free black persons from voting, serving on juries, and enjoying other such rights. Lincoln strongly believed slavery was "a great evil.

Lincoln preferred to emancipate the slaves gradually by compensating their owners with federal funds. Lincoln also supported the idea of providing government aid to the freed slaves, enabling them to establish colonies abroad. Lincoln thought that in their own black nations, they would finally enjoy equal political and civil rights.

Although Illinois voters elected Lincoln to the state legislature and to a term in the U. House of Representatives, he made little impression. Lincoln decided not to run for re-election to Congress after his term ended in He then started a prosperous law firm in Springfield, Illinois.

In , however, the explosive issue of expanding slavery into the Western territories drew him back into politics and ultimately to the presidency. In , U. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois Democrat, led Congress in passing a law that would open the possibility of expanding slavery into this area.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act left it up to the voters in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide the legal status of slavery. Douglas called this "popular sovereignty. Those who joined the new political party included abolitionists and a much larger number of "Free-Soilers" who simply wanted to prevent the expansion of slavery into the Western territories.

In , Illinois Republicans nominated Lincoln for a seat in the U. Senators were elected by state legislatures then, and Lincoln lost the contest in the Illinois state legislature. But he was back in to challenge one of the most powerful political leaders in the nation, Stephen A.

In that case, the majority of justices had further undermined the Missouri Compromise by ruling that a slave taken by his master into a free territory or state remained a slave. In his acceptance speech, Lincoln summarized his position on the expansion of slavery by quoting the words of Jesus: "A house divided against itself cannot stand" Matthew Lincoln argued that slavery in the United States would eventually have to end everywhere or become legal everywhere in order for the nation to survive:.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South.

Lincoln then attacked his opponent, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the chief author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln charged, "he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up" in Kansas and Nebraska. Lincoln went on to debate Douglas on the "popular sovereignty" controversy. Although Lincoln lost his second attempt to win a Senate seat, his "House Divided" speech and debates with Douglas made Lincoln a national political figure.

In February , Lincoln stunned a gathering of Eastern Republicans who were considering a number of candidates for president. The strange looking "rail splitter" from the West delivered a carefully researched speech that demolished the arguments of the Southerners who claimed the expansion of slavery was constitutional. A few months later, the Republicans made Lincoln their presidential nominee. Lincoln won the bitter presidential election of against three opponents, including Stephen A.

Lincoln swept the electoral votes of the Northern states, but only won 39 percent of the popular vote. Even before his inauguration, a number of Southern states seceded from the Union. Meserve got the collecting bug when trying to find suitable images for the diary of his father, a Union soldier who met Lincoln at the Antietam battlefield in Lincoln in Springfield, taken by Preston Butler circa July Kunhardt Jr. Lincoln in New York City on February 27, This was taken by Mathew B. Brady on the day Lincoln delivered his famous Cooper Union speech.

According to Holzer, many say this photograph made Lincoln President. Lincoln in Washington, months after he decided to grow a beard and soon after the Civil War began in Frederick H. Meserve "understood the value in keeping his images away from any type of light," said his great-great-grandson Peter. Many were kept in closets and boxes. Lincoln is seen in Washington in this photo taken by Alexander Gardner on November 8, Lincoln is considered to be the first President photographed while in office.

Because the art form was relatively still in its infancy, portrait subjects had to sit still. Of the Lincoln portraits, Holzer wrote: "No written evidence more powerfully created the 'foundation' of our estimate of Lincoln than the portraits for which he sat before the cameras of his day. Lincoln stands on February 9, , in this photo taken by Anthony Berger. A different Berger portrait is the basis for the President's images on the penny. Peter W.

Lincoln with his son Tad on February 5, The photo was taken by Alexander Gardner. Lincoln in Washington, circa February The photograph is by Lewis Emory Walker. These and other images of this time show how much the President had aged during the Civil War.

He was only 56 when he was assassinated two months later by John Wilkes Booth. Yet his rise from obscurity to president wasn't all on the up and up. Getting the Republican Party's nomination in and then defeating Democrat Stephen Douglas involved some sly political moves by Lincoln's team. Here's a look at some lesser known facts about this larger-than-life leader:.