The Emancipation Proclamation and the Death of an American Hero.

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History 150 Online
10 March 2014

There were many different events that happened during the time of President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln came up with the Emancipation Proclamation which was an effort to help end slavery, eventually leading to the thirteenth amendment to abolish slavery altogether. Sadly his life was cut short. John Wilkes Booth assassinated him before he could finish all the work he wanted to accomplish for the United States. A leaded of a conspirator group who was sympathetic to the South and strongly opposed abolishment. The Emancipation Proclamation furthered their hatred for the North especially the man who wrote the proposal President Abraham Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation was a proposal drafted by President Abraham Lincoln in November of 1862, Lincoln waited to inform the public of the proclamation for a Union victory to ensure the people that The Union Army could in fact enforce the proclamation. The proclamation however sparked much controversy, not only between the South and North, but between the border states and politicians in the North. The Emancipation Proclamation Did not destroy the institution of slavery itself, it had only applied to the states in rebellion. It really only freed Union Army officers from returning runaway slaves to the South. This resulted in an influx of runaway salves fleeing the South and making there way to the northern states. Many runaway slaves fought along side The Union Army during The Civil War, many would say this was a turning point in the war.
Most Republicans supported the Emancipation Proclamation; Democrats on the other hand thought it was unconstitutional. “The Boston post insisted that congress had no authority to appropriate public funds for the purchase and emancipation of slaves” (Oakes 286). The border state insisted that the federal interference of slavery violated the constitutional consensus. Republicans argued that the proclamation was in fact constitutional due to the fact that it was entirely up to the states whether or not they would sell their slaves to the federal government.
The way that “President Lincoln justified the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure intended to cripple the confederacy. Being careful to respect the limits of his authority. Lincoln applied the Emancipation Proclamation only to the southern states in rebellion” (Civil War) The Emancipation Proclamation only applied the state's in rebellion, but after The Civil War the proclamation prepared the people to accept abolishment for all slaves in both the South and North, thus leading to the Thirteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides the neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States. The Amendment passed through congress on January 31, 1865, but was not ratified until December 6, 1865; President Abraham Lincoln never had the chance to witness the ratification. One southern sympathizer by the name of John Wilkes Booth felt that the Emancipation Proclamation was a premature claim of victory over the South. This infuriated Booth, he knew something must be done or his beloved South would surely fail. Booth and his conspirator originally planned to kidnap the President and take him to Richmond Virginia, were they could them negotiate A trade, the President for Confederate officers being held in prisons, this planned failed however when the President missed the event were the kid napping would have taken place.
Booth had then come up with a second plan; at first it involved kid napping again. As Booth grew angrier everyday he decided that kidnapping would not be enough. He now planed on killing the President in the name of the South. “This is the South’s last chance he said stubbornly. Tell me did you ever see the play Julius Caesar? Or