Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation today (January 1) in 1863

Today (January 1) in 1863 President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that slaves in rebel states were free.  This declaration had more military than political implication.

Lincoln’s sole object was to save the Union; he was not fighting the war to end the slavery institution.  In his letter to Horace Greeley, “My paramount object is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. . . What I do about slavery and the coloured race, I do because it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

This is not to say that Lincoln was immoral and was not against slavery. In his letter to Albert Hodges (4/4/1864), he wrote, “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel.”

No wonder Longfellow’s “Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! / Sail on, O Union, strong and great!” moved Lincoln to tears.

Some said Lincoln’s signature on that document was somewhat shaky, not because he was not resolute in this conviction, but because he had shaked hands with several thousand well wishers/visitors in the White House reception on New Year Day when Secretary of State, William Seward and his son brought the document for him to sign.