林肯宣布在反叛州释放奴隶

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. The Civil War began in eighteen sixty-one as a struggle over the right of states to leave the Union.

President Abraham Lincoln firmly believed that a state did not have that right. And he declared war on the southern states that tried to leave. Lincoln had only one reason to fight: to save the Union. In time, however, there was another reason to fight: to free the black people held as slaves in the South.

Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe continue the story of how President Lincoln dealt with this issue. Lincoln had tried to keep the issue of slavery out of the war. He feared it would weaken the northern war effort.

Many men throughout the North would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves. Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that had not left the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri.

He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves. Lincoln was able to follow this policy, at first. But the war to save the Union was going badly. The North had not won a decisive victory in Virginia, the heart of the Confederacy.

To guarantee continued support for the war, Lincoln was forced to recognize that the issue of slavery was, in fact, a major issue. And on September twenty-second, eighteen sixty-two, he announced a new policy on slavery in the rebel southern states. His announcement became known as the Emancipation Proclamation.

American newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said: I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States and commander in chief of the Army and Navy,

do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free. The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

For political reasons, the proclamation did not free slaves in the states that supported the Union. Nor did it free slaves in the areas around Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Most anti-slavery leaders praised the Emancipation Proclamation. They had waited a long time for such a document.

But some did not like it. They said it did not go far enough. It did not free all of the slaves in the United States, only those held by the rebels. Lincoln answered that the Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure. He said he made it under his wartime powers as commander in chief.