EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
The Emancipation Proclamation, formally issued on January 1, 1863, by President ABRAHAM LINCOLN is often mistakenly praised as the legal instrument that ended slavery—actually,
the THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT to the Constitu-
tion, ratified in December 1865, outlawed SLAV-
ERY. But the proclamation is justifiably
celebrated as a significant step toward the goal of
ending slavery and making African Americans
equal citizens of the United States. Coming as it
did in the midst of the Civil War (1861–65), the
proclamation announced to the Confederacy
and the world that the ABOLITION of slavery had
become an important goal of the North in its
fight against the rebellious states of the South.
The document also marked a shift in Lincoln’s
mind toward support for emancipation. Just
before signing the final document in 1863, Lin-
coln said, “I never, in my life, felt more certain
that I was doing right than I do in signing this
paper.”
In the text of the proclamation—which is
almost entirely the work of Lincoln himself—
Lincoln characterizes his order as “an act of jus-
tice, warranted by the Constitution upon
military necessity.” These words capture the
essential character of Lincoln’s work in the doc-
ument. On the one hand, he perceived the
proclamation as a kind of military tactic that
would aid the Union in its difficult struggle
against the Confederacy. As such, it was an
