Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Constitution

Abstract

Introduction When Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office as president of the United in 1861, the country was on the verge of civil war sev en southern states had seceded from the Union soon after Lincoln's election, the Upper South and border states of Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and Missouri threatened to follow their southern colleagues and public unrest in the northern states was evident. On March 4, 1861, in the midst of this crisis, Lincoln stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and swore to faith fully execute the office of President of the United States and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the of the United States. Did Lincoln follow that oath or did he abuse his power as president during the Civil War and damage the he had sworn to protect? While most historians today consistently rank Lincoln as America's greatest president, in his own time, many people thought him to be a tyrant who trampled upon the (1). To prove the point, Lin coln's critics cited his suspension of the writ ofhabeas corpus, they criti cized his use of military force, and they questioned his right as president to seize private or limit the freedom of the press. Perhaps the most constitutionally controversial of Lincoln's actions during the war was the one he took the greatest pains to resolve through the limits of the law, the question of emancipation (2). Opponents on both sides of the issue questioned his actions. Abolitionists urged him to use his power as president to move quickly to destroy the evil elements in the Constitution and were disappointed when he did not immediately abolish slavery during the first few months of his presidency. Slavehold ers saw his actions on emancipation as confirming their fears that Lin coln would trample their property rights. How was Lincoln able to use the rule of law to help bring about the end of slavery? How did he balance his moral and legal views of slavery? This lesson will ask students to analyze and compare Lincoln's thoughts and legal actions regarding emancipation beginning with bill he proposed to the House of Representatives in 1849 until the ultimate success of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. The chal lenge of this lesson is that it deals with the rather abstract concept of the rule of law. But the overriding question that Lincoln wrestled with in dealing with the constitutional issue of emancipation is one that young people can relate to: do the ends justify the means?