The Emancipation Proclamation’s Effects on the Inclusion of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments

    The Emancipation Proclamation  drafted on January 1st, 1861, was the unintentional cause of the inclusion of Civil war amendments 13, 14, and 15. Although only a military action, it caused these amendments due to lack of reference or specification on state’s rights, reference to citizenship issues with freedmen, and issues on freedmen and their eligibility for voting. Overall, the amendments were made due to discrimination and racism that managed to get around the Emancipation Proclamation without being the same as slavery, but ultimately lead to freedmen feeling no change of status since being set free.

     Thaddeus Stevens, a radical republican as well as active abolitionist during Reconstruction, originally proposed the theory of emancipating slaves in the South as part of engaging in all out war. His idea was based around the theory that causing plantation owners to lose labor forces would devastate the Confederate economy. Lincoln supported this suggestion and signed the Second Confiscation Act in July of 1862 which freed slaves who escaped to union lines or were found by union forces on plantations aiding in the rebellion. Although this rarely happened, it gave Lincoln a sound basis to enact Stevens’ idea. This would lead up to the Emancipation Proclamation which would simply free all slaves nationwide. The Emancipation Proclamation stated that Slaves in Confederate states would be free if they were unable to return to the Union borders by January 1st, 1863. Abraham Lincoln did not fully intend for this emancipation to put an outright end to slavery, but to declare that the Union’s reason for war was now to reunite the country as a whole, as well as to fully abolish slavery. Lincoln stated this emancipation was to be considered a necessary military action, because he otherwise retained no constitutional power to instantly free them all.
     Even after the conclusion of the Civil War itself on April 9th, 1865, Southern States still had little intention of complying with the Emancipation Proclamation, so the 13th Amendment was passed to officially abolish slavery and involuntary servitude with no excuse. This amendment was declared on December 18th, 1865 by William H. Seward. Now that the union had achieved victory, Southern slave owners would have no choice but to comply. All slaves could now go free. Problems quickly arose as these millions of people found themselves without food, education, or funding to live normal lives. Shortly after the 13th amendment passed, the Freedman’s Bureau was initiated. Started on march 3rd of 1865, the bureau contributed $17,000 along with 400 schools and 100 hospitals to aid with the settling in of freed slaves. Andrew Johnson eventually vetoed a bill to aid the failing bureau with similar feelings to southerners on these newly freed slaves.