Emancipation Proclamation

Examples of Emancipation Proclamation in the following topics:

• The 13th Amendment

  • The Thirteenth Amendment completed the abolition of slavery in the United States, which had begun with President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

• Executive Orders

  • These orders carry the same force of law as executive orders—the difference between the two is that executive orders are aimed at those inside government while proclamations are aimed at those outside government.
  • The administrative weight of these proclamations is upheld because they are often specifically authorized by congressional statute, making them "delegated unilateral powers."
  • Presidential proclamations are often dismissed as a practical presidential tool for policymaking because of the perception of proclamations as largely ceremonial or symbolic in nature.
  • However, the legal weight of presidential proclamations suggests their importance to presidential governance.
  • Leland-Boker Authorized Edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, printed in June 1864 with a presidential signature

• Separate But Equal

  • While the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War amendments ended slavery and attempted to legislate equality, the violation of civil rights continued after the reconstruction era.

• The Civil War Amendments

  • The Civil War Amendments protected equality for emancipated slaves by banning slavery, defining citizenship, and ensuring voting rights.
  • Known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, they were designed to ensure the equality for recently emancipated slaves.
  • While the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) officially ended slavery within the U.S., many citizens were concerned that the rights granted by war-time legislation would be overturned.

• Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement

  • Slavery, including chattel slavery, was a legal institution in the US from the colonial period until the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution (1865).

• Federalism and the Civil War: The Dred Scott Decision and Nullification

  • Scott claimed that his presence and residence in free territories required his emancipation.
  • The sons of Peter Blow purchased emancipation for Scott and his family on May 26, 1857.

• Abolitionism and the Women's Rights Movement

  • Supporters of this strategy often also advocated for colonization for freed slaves, a strategy that would see emancipated people sent to colonies established in Africa, such as Liberia.
  • For example, both emancipated women who had been slaves and free women of color were active in the abolitionist movement, but as the women's movement grew there was often resistance on the part of the increasingly middle class, educated, white leadership to include Black women.

• The 14th Amendment

  • But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

• Emergency Powers

  • On December 16, 1950, during the Korean War, President Truman issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2914, declaring a state of national emergency.

• The Cabinet

  • Those that remain include storage and use of the Great Seal of the United States, performance of protocol functions for the White House, and the drafting of certain proclamations.