September Presidential Statements: Emancipation Proclamation and “Rocket Man” Speech

This Friday (September 22^nd) marks the anniversary of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

As Commander-in-Chief, Lincoln specifically declared: "That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

He did more. President Lincoln also proclaimed that freed slaves would work for wages. That was a remarkable statement because no slave-owner could ever imagine paying a slave. Lincoln said:

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

Now, compare the tone of President Trump’s angry and arrogant UN speech (September 19th) to this conclusion of Lincoln’s proclamation, which was offered in the midst of a war that would kill close to 700,000 soldiers: “And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”