Essay --

â€Å"Lincoln Issues the Emancipation Proclamation† Out of all the documents signed throughout history in attempt to benefit our country, Abraham Lincoln felt that his document, Emancipation Proclamation, was most important. On January 1, 1763, approaching the third year of the very bloody civil war, President Abraham Lincoln released the Proclamation which declared â€Å"that all persons held as slaves† within the rebellious states, â€Å" are, and henceforward shall be free†(U.S National Archives & Records Administration). However, this only applied to the states that had been labeled as being rebellion, not to the slaveholding border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and the areas that the Confederacy had already come under the Union Control. Abraham Lincoln released the document at the right time to ensure that it would make a positive impact and change completely, the aim of the war. To this day, the Emancipation Proclamation shows an example of equality and cognizance (Weider History Group, n.p). In August of 1861, during the Civil War, Congress had passed their first Confiscation Act of many. Confiscation is known as the seizing of someone's property without authority. The act was used against any property, which included slaves as well, used in the rebellion against the U.S government (Weider History Group, n.p). Union major general, John C. Fermont, Commander of the Department of the West, had issued an order which declared martial law in Missouri, as well as freeing all slave states that were held by Missouri secessionists (Weider History Group, n.p). Lincoln had ordered Fermont to change the order to conform the First Confiscation Act, in fear that it might link abolition with the war that could cause the slave... ...rmies, at that point didn’t have to be returned due to the words of the proclamation. They were considered, â€Å"forever free† (Weiders History Guide, n.p). The main reason President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation mainly as a war measure. The biggest impact that was made off of this document was how for the first time, it placed U.S government against â€Å"peculiar institution†, which placed a barrier between the South, and the recognition by the European nations which outlawed slavery (Weider History Group, n.p). The south relied on aid from France and England. In many articles within the Confederate States’ Constitution, slavery had only been protected in the Confederacy, but in other articles of the U.S Constitution, it also stated that it protected slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation made a vivid distinction of the two (Weider History Group, n.p).