Lincoln
... Republicans to issue an Emancipation Proclamation. In principle, I approved, but I postponed action against slavery until I believed I had wider support from the American Public. I have raised this issue a number of times and have received mixed feelings from congress who fear overseas intervention and southern rebellion. As the war goes on, I have become convinced that before it ends, it will become necessary to free the slaves. After the Battle of Antietam on January 1, 1863, I issued the Emancipation Proclamation, as a military measure designed both to deprive the Confederacy of slave Labor and bring additional men into the Union Army, which has advocated its immediate release. This has freed all slaves in those states in rebellion against the U.S. "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honourable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of the earth." When the slaves were fr...