Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter E

Today is the 5th day of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. I will only be posting the linky list on Mondays, to save space on the blog. 

The American Civil War did not start out as a war to end slavery, but Abraham Lincoln called slavery "an unqualified evil to the negro, the white man, and the State." His election jeopardized the Southern way of life, despite Lincoln's first inaugural address where he declared he had no intentions to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed. Some southerners wanted to see slavery expand across the country, and Lincoln's opinion on slavery led them to realize it wouldn't happen while he occupied the White House. So, one by one, the southern states seceded from the Union. 

As president, Lincoln was bound by a Constitution that protected slavery in any state whose citizens wanted it. But as commander in chief, he could seize enemy property used to wage war against the United States. By 1862, many Republicans felt a war against a slaveholders' rebellion must become a war against slavery itself, and they pressured Lincoln to proclaim an emancipation policy. As the war continued, with the North suffering horrible loses, emancipation seemed to become a military necessity. 

On September 22, five days after the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln gathered the members of his cabinet. He stated he made a covenant with God that if the Union army drove the enemy from Maryland, he would issue his Emancipation Proclamation. This proclamation declared that in all states that were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves "then, thenceforward, and forever free." 

Union forces then became armies of liberation who freed slaves in the rebel states "as an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity." Though the Civil War would continue for another two years, the Emancipation Proclamation was another move toward abolishing slavery forever.