AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 1865
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Lincoln freed slaves throughout the U.S. as a way to preserve the Union.
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The president did not have the power to end slavery within the United States; thiswould have been a matter of changing the Constitution, which cannot be done bythe president alone.
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He didn’t want to upset the south.
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None of the above
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Detailed explanation-1: -Because it was a military measure, however, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control.
Detailed explanation-2: -Why could Lincoln only free the slaves in the states that were in rebellion and not all of the slaves throughout the country? The president did not have the power to end slavery within the United States; this would have been a matter of changing the Constitution, which cannot be done by the president alone.
Detailed explanation-3: -Lincoln continued to maintain that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed. However, as a result of Union battlefield losses by July 1862, the President had decided that emancipation was a military necessity. Lincoln knew that many thousands of enslaved people were ready to fight for the Union.
Detailed explanation-4: -The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t actually free all enslaved people. Since Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure, it didn’t apply to border slave states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, all of which were loyal to the Union.