Remembering this day...

[Lincoln in Washington]

Francis B. Carpenter took the view of today's event as being "the seminal moment" when he decided to immortalize the "First Reading" with his iconic painting. Though Lincoln had promised Sen. Sumner in December 1861 that he would take a "swing" at slavery, it took him most of the year to get in postion to be able to make a proclamation stick. Even Lincoln was surprised that people like Carpenter would make such a fuss over the reading of the draft. I have had a lot of fun this year talking in several forums about the run-up to the January 1, 1863 Proclamation, under the theme of "the Emancipation Year." The next one will be for the DC Historical Society on October 19. The strategy of emancipation was woven through Lincoln's artful coordination of policies regarding compensated emancipation to assuage the border states, colonization to calm the pro-war democrats, and expanding the definition of "contrabands" to show how the Confederate war effort could be undermined. It was very complicated, and not at all certain that it could be done without jeopardizing the war for Union. But give credit where it is due. The "war purpose theory" that made it all possible was conceived by Gen. Ben Butler at Fort Monroe on May 23, 1861, when he refused to return three escaped slaves who had been "leased" by their master to the Confederate army. Butler declared that this military use of leased "property" made the men contrabands of war, thus nullifying his Constitutional duty to return them under the Fugitive Slave Act. Lincoln took it from there.
This is my first post and I am delighted to be a part of your discussion forum.
John O'Brien