Uncle Benito
New member
...of you revisionists claim...? ...could one of you explain why the only slaves the federal government could free with one stroke of the pen were not emancipated until more than a year after the start of the war? If emancipation were the goal, wouldn't one logically expect that slaves in the District of Columbia would have been freed the day after the fall of Fort Sumter?
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/dc_emancipation_act/
gabriel: I wasn't referring to the Emancipation Proclamation, but rather to the District of Columbia Emancipation Act. As a federally-administered district rather than a state, all Lincoln needed was a majority in both Houses, whch would have been easy to do considering the huge majority the GOP enjoyed in 1861-2.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/dc_emancipation_act/
gabriel: I wasn't referring to the Emancipation Proclamation, but rather to the District of Columbia Emancipation Act. As a federally-administered district rather than a state, all Lincoln needed was a majority in both Houses, whch would have been easy to do considering the huge majority the GOP enjoyed in 1861-2.