* On the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation, the Surprising Truth: With yesterday (January 1st, 2023) being the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, we are going back to a broadcast classic where Bob Enyart and guest Jamie Schofield analyze the meaning and actual intent of that sad document. For this was no abolitionist policy (as a contemporaneous report in the Rocky Mountain News makes clear), but an example of moral compromise that ended in failure.
Today's Resource: The Plot | Second Edition!
The Bible Gets Easier to Understand:
Apparent contradictions plague many Bible students. The Plot demonstrates how hundreds of such contradictions disappear when the reader applies the big picture of the Bible to its details. Tunnel vision focuses so narrowly on a problem that the solution often lies just out of view. As the pastor of Denver Bible Church, Bob Enyart teaches Christians how to use the whole counsel of God to understand the plot of the Bible and solve biblical mysteries. (Missionaries in Costa Rica effectively use the Spanish translation, La Trama.)
Available as either book or PDF download.
The Plot: 2nd Edition
Just before his passing, Bob finished the second edition of his manuscript, The Plot. While sadly he didn't live long enough to see the work published, He did get it out just in time. His second edition includes ten years worth of updates, revisions, additional sections and updated graphics. Now, a year after his passing, it has been made available to the public! Get your copy now...
The Proclamation was actually comprised of two announcements, not just one. The first half – the preliminary proclamation – set the policy and gave a deadline of 100 days. It was addressed not to the common citizens of the nation or to the Union military, but rather to the states in rebellion at that time. What was Lincoln’s declared policy on slavery at that time? He made that very clear in a letter to Horace Greeley on Aug. 22, 1862, just days before the issuance of the preliminary proclamation:
If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. . . . I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.
Lincoln’s goal was not the abolition of slavery but rather the preservation of the Union, and if that meant keeping slaves in bondage everywhere, he would support and practice exactly that. And this non-abolitionist stance is reflected in the text of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Preliminary Proclamation, September, 1862
In short, the stated intent and purpose of this policy was to offer the Confederate states the opportunity to keep their slaves if they would choose to stop rebelling within a 100-day deadline. Essentially, it said that if your state ceases its rebellion against the union, you may keep your slaves.
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States... That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight...