Can you please summarize Lincoln’s Leadership & the Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln’s initial motivation for ending the war was to
preserve the Union--not to abolish slavery. However, by the
summer of 1862, it was clear to Lincoln that the time had come
for a change in his policy toward slavery. He realized that slavery
would not work itself into extinction like he believed in his first
years as a politician and that the only way to end it would be for
him to abolish it. Lincoln wrote a proclamation of emancipation
and withheld pronouncement until the circumstances were
favorable. After the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued a warning
that all slaves behind Confederate lines would be declared free on
January 1, 1863. This proved that the North was not fighting only
for the Union, but also for human freedom. It also proved that
Lincoln stood by his beliefs that slavery was wrong and should be
abolished. In fact, Lincoln was certainly opposed to the institution
of slavery but was unclear as to how rid the country of slavery.
Lincoln believed, like the Founding Fathers, that slavery would die
out by deterring its expansion and gradually repealing it.
Eventually, though, as the Union army began to march into the
Confederate states, slaves would flock to join them as Union
officers were instructed to disregard the regulations of the
Fugitive Slave Act. President Lincoln knew that the issue of
slavery would have to be dealt with; he also knew that the timing
would need to be perfect.

It was the believed that a Union victory at Antietam was what
allowed for President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation. Issued on September 22, 1862 - just five short
days after the Battle of Antietam - the proclamation decreed that
all slaves would be freed as of January 1, 1863. The choice to
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hold off on the proclamation until a Union victory, was seen as a
move to be intentional, as opposed to a last-ditch effort or a
move of desperation. Lincoln’s Proclamation was
groundbreaking: slavery would no longer exist in the United
States of America. Lincoln said “I never, in my life, felt more
certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.”
While the Emancipation Proclamation clearly ended slavery as far
as Northerners were concerned, would the Confederate states,
currently operating under a government separate from the U. S.,
honor the decree set forth in the proclamation?
Three days after issuing one of Lincoln’s most notable
accomplishments, Lincoln issued another proclamation. On
September 25, 1862, President Lincoln suspended the right of
habeas corpus. Habeas Corpus is the right of a person to appear
in court following their arrest to ensure that the accused has not
been falsely accused. This proclamation said that protesters or
staunch supporters of ending the war would be subject to martial
law and the suspension of habeas corpus. While first issued
specifically to be enacted in the state of Maryland (to ensure that
Confederate troops could not advance into Washington, DC.), the
suspension of habeas corpus was extended beyond Maryland’s
borders. When faced with criticism, Lincoln responded by
arguing that it was sometimes necessary to do activities such as
this when your nation was being torn apart by civil war. Lincoln’s