* On the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation, the Surprising Truth: With tomorrow (January 1st, 2022) being the 159th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Bob Enyart and guest Jamie Schofield analyze the meaning and actual intent of that sad document. For this was no abolitionist policy (as a contemporaneous report in the Rocky Mountain News makes clear), but an example of moral compromise that ended in failure. The Proclamation was actually comprised of two announcements, not just one.  The first half – the preliminary proclamation – set the policy and gave a deadline of 100 days.  It was addressed not to the common citizens of the nation or to the Union military, but rather to the states in rebellion at that time.  What was Lincoln’s declared policy on slavery at that time?  He made that very clear in a letter to Horace Greeley on Aug. 22, 1862, just days before the issuance of the preliminary proclamation: If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. . . . 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. Lincoln’s goal was not the abolition of slavery but rather the preservation of the Union, and if that meant keeping slaves in bondage everywhere, he would support and practice exactly that.  And this non-abolitionist stance is reflected in the text of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Preliminary Proclamation, September, 1862 In short, the stated intent and purpose of this policy was to offer the Confederate states the opportunity to keep their slaves if they would choose to stop rebelling within a 100-day deadline.  Essentially, it said that if your state ceases its rebellion against the union, you may keep your slaves. I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States... That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; Any state still in rebellion against the Union on Jan. 1 would be subject to the Proclamation, which would declare any current slaves in those areas to be free.  The stated goal was not to free any slaves, but rather to preserve the Union.  Was it a success?  Before hearing the answer, Bob predicted that such a policy would bear no fruit, and he was right.  In fact, not a single state took Lincoln up on his offer.  By its own standard, the Proclamation was an abject failure!  In fact, all the proclamation did in that regard was to infuriate the Confederate states more than ever, deepening their resolve to reject the Union. Perhaps even worse, the preliminary proclamation also explicitly ordered slaves to be returned to their slave owners in specific circumstances, thus actually ordering the enforcement of keeping such men in bondage: Sec.10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escap