Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to make only Southeastern stop in Nashville
From: vaproto@optonline.net
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/12/lincolns_emancipation_proclama.html
My response on the page:
Lincoln’s document was a war strategy and nothing more. He "freed" slaves in territory in which he had no power and left slavery standing in those areas under Union control. That alone should negate any believe that this had anything to do with "emancipation," that and the fact that he promised to RESTORE slavery in any seceded state which returned to the Union by January of 1864! So much for Lincoln’s "war against slavery!"
We can see his military strategy revealed in Paragraph 1 of the EP which states clearly that "…the Executive Government of the United States, including the military…authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons (black slaves), and WILL DO NO ACT OR ACTS TO REPRESS SUCH PERSONS…IN ANY EFFORTS THEY MAY MAKE FOR THEIR ACTUAL FREEDOM." In other words, the US government in Lincoln’s words, would accept servile insurrection and the murder of white Southerners as a legitimate means by which such "emancipated slaves" might achieve their freedom.
Why was this done? Because Lincoln and his military believed that Confederate soldiers, fearing for their families, friends and neighbors (whether or not they owned slaves), would desert and return home to protect them. Hence, with the stroke of a pen, Lincoln would do what his vaunted generals and armies could not do, defeat Lee and the rest by using the threat of barbarous slave uprisings. However, the average Southerner knew better. He believed – and rightly so – that his family was safe with the slaves who had been like members of his family and, in fact, they were. Indeed, slaves often protected their white masters from the Union forces and suffered dearly for it. Read ACCURATE accounts of Sherman’s "march" and see how blacks were treated by Lincoln’s generals and their soldiers – it ain’t pretty.
It’s time to put the "Emancipation Proclamation" into its correct place in history – as a wicked war ploy that simply didn’t work.
