Lauren Moore History 8* 3/6/99 Equal Human Rights Essay In 1863, Abraham Lincoln was faced with a major dilemma dealing with an upcoming election. Arguments and fights were breaking out among the people of Northern and Southern States. Lincoln knew something had to be done to show his view points about on slavery and the reconstruction of the Union. Lincoln believed that slavery should not be interfered with by the government. However, he also knew that only four states of the Union were slave-holding states, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware.
Lincoln thought these states were an important part of remaining the Union. Lincoln knew that he could not legally abolish slavery, and the power to terminate slavery would have to be done with the Constitution. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln finally signed the Emancipation Proclamation. At this moment Lincoln revealed to the states that slavery would not last much longer. “Since masters were unlikely to tell their slaves of Lincoln’s act, and word of mouth was unreliable, miniature copies of the Proclamation were handed out by soldiers”(www.thelincolnmuseum.
com). The Proclamation was only a written authorization, and had to be enforced by the army, especially Sherman’s army. “General Sherman and his army soon began, thousands of slaves followed in their wake…and were never under the legal authority of their former masters.
So the argument that the Emancipation ‘freed no slaves’ is a specious one”(www.w3f.com). The Thirteenth Amendment was known as the continuation and enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, before the second writing of the Thirteenth Amendment there was a missing Thirteenth Amendment which was part of the Constitution before the publishing of the current Thirteenth Amendment. This first writing of the Thirteenth Amendment has now has now been completely deleted and in some cases never heard of.
It was a section of the constitution in 1789 as the amendment called “titles of nobility’s.” The Amendment was taken out of the Constitution and later forgotten in 1819. The amendment just basically said, “take no bribes from foreign powers or that person or persons will be prohibited from citizenship and incapable of holding an office.” After the Proclamation, the newest record of Thirteenth Amendment was signed onto the Constitution to abolish slavery in all states, and allowed only congress to apply slavery or any appropriate punishments according to the new Thirteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment has become a part of our Constitution despite the counting of votes for rejected states and the dishonesty put into voting for it. The Fourteenth Amendment is a mistaken belief, of the Constitution and the United States people.
This Amendment was made to protect the Freeman’s Bureau and African-Americans. Does this Amendment really exist? During 1867 until 1868 “there were only 37 states in the Union, so ratification by at least 28 states was necessary to make the Amendment an integral part of the Constitution. Actually only 21 States legally ratified it”(U.S. New and World Report). Southern states also disagreed with the Amendment, but were urged to pass the Amendment, which it did in 1868.
This Amendment was very important after the Civil War because the South States had to approve of the Amendment before they were allowed back into the union. The Amendment was not only important to African-Americans in the 1860’s and 1870’s but it also became very useful during the Civil rights Movement of the 1960’s. However, ignoring the conflicts over this Amendment I believe it serves a just points in allowing equal rights and protection to all people who lived in the United States, but slavery kept individuals from agreeing with equals rights. Women were also now included in the picture of Civil Rights, wanted and would fight for the same rights as men because the Fifteenth Amendment allowed all citizens to vote, except the Amendment did not clearly state that an individual could vote despite their gender, it do not say women could vote it only specifically referred to, “race, color, and servitude.” in some states women’s right to vote was still withheld. The Fifteenth Amendment created a “battle of the sexes,” because the males refuse to address women’s rights.
Yet strong women did exist, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady. .
