[September 22, 2016] Growing up in the Deep South of the United States several decades ago, grade school was where you learned the basics; reading, writing, and arithmetic. You also learned “civics” and gained knowledge about how American government functions. One lesson from my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Louise McDermott was the importance of U.S. President Lincoln’s issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.
“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” – Sun Tzu
Mrs. McDermott taught us that by Lincoln’s action he did two things simultaneously that show him a brilliant strategist. First, the Emancipation Proclamation – on the face of it – freed more than 3 millions black slaves. This was something Lincoln and his Republican Party had wanted for a long time … it was a moral imperative. She cast this within context; the Union was being torn apart by a brutal Civil War that would destroy vast territory and kill more than 600,000 soldiers, sailors, and civilians.
She also taught us another important lesson. Lincoln’s proclamation also completely recast the Civil War as a fight against slavery. The beginning of the war was about restoring the Union, not about slavery. The South (the Confederacy) wanted to distance itself from what they saw as a tyrannical Federal government and a desire for stronger states rights; which included many things involving economics and freedom.
Today, if we go into a classroom in a local grade school and listen to a teacher tell young students about the Emancipation Proclamation, you will not hear the second reason Lincoln issued the proclamation. Adults today neither have that understanding nor do they realize the brilliance of Lincoln making the war about slavery.
By doing so he created a diplomatic impasse for countries considering backing the southern Confederacy. Any anti-slavery nation (like Great Britain or France) that supported the South would be seen as favoring slavery. Effectively this ended any chance for the Confederacy to gain outside support and virtually doomed its efforts to secede from the Union.
On this date, September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that would free slaves in areas still in rebellion within 100 days. Mrs. McDermott would be happy, I think, that my classmates and I remember her wisdom and instruction. Her passing several years ago was a sad day for us all.
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