Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation
Proclamation. As the country approached the third year of a
bloody civil war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which formally
emancipated all slaves held in States or parts of States in
active rebellion against the Union. Lincoln declared by
executive order “all persons held as slaves” in Confederate
territories to be “forever free” and, furthermore, that the
“Executive government of the United States, including the
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of said persons.” Although first unsure
about the extent of his executive power and authority under the
Constitution to free the slaves, eventually Lincoln justified
emancipation by executive order as a military necessity that
came under his constitutional powers as commander-in-chief. Just
before signing the document, Lincoln said, "I never, in my life,
felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing t