About the Exhibition One hundred and fifty years ago, the nation
was engaged in what Abraham Lincoln called "a great civil war,"
a bloody conflict unleashed by decades of growing discord over
the issue of American slavery. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln
used his powers as commander-in-chief to issue a Preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation, marking the first major effort by the
federal government to end the brutal institution. Lincoln's
order declared that all slaves held within Rebel territory—the
eleven states of the Southern Confederacy— would be freed on
January 1, 1863, unless they returned to the Union. Lincoln's
own handwritten 1862 Preliminary Proclamation—one of the
greatest freedom documents in American history—is the only copy
in the president's hand to survive the 150 years since. Though
Lincoln's final proclamation burned in the Chicago fire, this
precious relic has been lovingly preserved by New York State. It
will be fittingly accompanied by a document written for its
centennial fifty years ago—