Seven score and eight years ago the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Not since the drafting of this nations constitution had a piece of text been so powerful and yet so flawed. Though Lincoln’s Proclamation may have freed most slaves, it didn’t free all, but the fact that a president would finally acknowledge the slave population as free when no other president would showed that he felt it was time for the nation to live up to its words of all men being equal. Lincoln is indeed worthy of the title “The Great Emancipator” for his actions during the Civil War. Though his actions may have been conflicted by his desire to keep the Union together, when it came time to emancipating the slaves he did when all other presidents failed to.
Lincoln battled with his duties as the president of the union and with his own personal beliefs. “I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” (Horace Greeley’s’ The Prayer of Twenty Millions’ and President Lincolns Response). Lincoln knew that his own views on the injustices of slavery could not affect the way he ran his presidency for he knew that half the country disagreed with him and he’d seen what a biased president could do. He thought only of the union and felt he would do whatever deemed necessary to keep it together despite his feelings. “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.” (Horace Greeley’s’ The Prayer of Twenty Millions’ and President Lincolns Response). Anyone who knew Lincoln knew he was a just man who loved his country. “Mr. Lincoln was known to be a man of tender heart, and boundless patience; no man could tell to what length he might go, or might refrain from going in the direction of peace and reconciliation. Hitherto, he had not shown himself a man...