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On milestone of Emancipation Proclamation, unity is urged

The Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to any Union States. The Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to any captured Confederate states under Union control. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves in Confederate states that had not been conquered by the Union.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a political statement, not a legal statement.

I attached a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation after the article.

Source

On milestone of Emancipation Proclamation, unity is urged

By Cecilia Chan The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Jan 1, 2013 10:29 PM

Although great strides have been made in the 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, much work still needs to be done, community leaders said Tuesday.

Approximately 60 people gathered at Eastlake Park in Phoenix, the city’s oldest park in the heart of the African-American community, to reflect on the document signed by President Abraham Lincoln that abolished slavery.

The Rev. Clyde Bowen said that people tend to forget the past but that to move forward, they need to look back. Bowen said the event will take place every Jan.1.

The New Year’s Day ceremony was hosted by the Arizona American African Republican Committee and attended by elected officials, church clergy and community activists.

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Tom Morrissey said that the Emancipation Proclamation was one of the “most critical documents in the history of mankind” and that the message that no person has the right to own another person continues to resonate through history. [But other then the message that slavery was wrong, the Emancipation Proclamation was not legally binding. It was the 13th Amendment that freed the slaves]

Speakers said the proclamation is a symbol of equality for all and touted a message that everyone needs to work together, regardless of party lines and backgrounds.

“If we all continue to work hard, struggle together, work together and continue to do the right thing, we will make the world a better place,” said Phoenix Vice Mayor Michael Johnson, whose District 8 includes the historic park. He is the fourth African-American to serve on the council.

Calvin Goode, 85, who served on the Phoenix City Council for 22 years, said he had experienced all kinds of discrimination, including attending segregated schools.

“There is work to be done,” he said. “If I can do it, you can do it.”

Goode, the second African-American to serve on the Phoenix council, is known for a number of achievements, including brokering a compromise that led to a city ordinance prohibiting workplace discrimination. He remains active in the community.

Ann Hart, deputy associate superintendent of the Arizona Department of Education, said that in the nation’s early history, no school in the South allowed Black children to receive a free education.

“Public education is a civil right,” she said.

That said, she urged attendees, as their New Year’s resolution, “to help educate Arizona’s youth.”

Hart noted that more than 20,000 students have failed Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards test since 1999, and that beginning this year, if third-grade students don’t pass the state reading test, they will be held back.

“Our kids need your help,” she said. “We want to keep our kids in school, all children. Our future depends on kids today.”

Art Olivas, 75, who has unsuccessfully run for Phoenix City Council and a state House seat, said he attended the event to “show support for the community as a whole.”

“We are supporting the people here,” said Olivas, who was born and raised in the area.

Michael Williams, 51, said as a Democrat, he attended the event because he felt the “issue of coming together is important.” Williams grew up in the area and played softball and learned to swim at the park as a child.

He said that while U.S. slavery is gone, there are many other forms of oppression.

The 13th Amendment freed the slaves

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Emancipation Proclamation didn't freed the slaves

It only freed slaves in the Confederate states which had not been conquered by the Union. And of course Lincoln didn't have the power to order slaves in another country.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863. That was about 2 years before the 13th Amendment went into effect which actually freed the slaves,

While the Emancipation Proclamation was meaningless from a legal point of view, in a political sense it did help Lincoln get the support of other nations against the South.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, [it only applied to the Confederate states, not the Union states] shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. [i.e. the invading Northern army in the Confederate states will consider all slaves they find to be free]

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

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 [none were Union 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.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. [So the freed Confederate slaves will be made into slaves for the Union Army!]

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.