The Emancipation Proclamation: "A Poor Document, But a Mighty Act"

[LincolnMan]

In response to the "poor document, but a mighty act" theme that was the name of this thread- I was reading the excellent book President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman by William Lee Miller, who comments on the Emancipation Proclamation:

"The Emancipation Proclamation sounds like a legal document because it is a legal document. It does not have the lift of a moral argument because it is not making a moral argument. Lincoln was not making an argument at all; he was making law. He was not giving inspiration; he was giving an order."

Miller goes on to say:

"The lawyer's prose was not a literary or moral failure but a necessity. The document was at its core an act of law in wartime-a military order- an order to military commanders to liberate slaves in conquered territory, in the teeth of strong resistance. The tedious specificity was central to Lincoln's justification: as military chief he could command, on his own authority, the freeing of slaves in states in rebellion as a necessary military measure. He could not do that in states and areas that were not in rebellion, which included areas captured by U.S. forces."

Page 264.