The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1862, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves “within the rebellious states” are, and henceforward shall be free.” The Emancipation Proclamation applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, by enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the Civil War almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailers had fought for the Union and freedom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02jsgp6UQdY

See how it took many years and a Civil War just for slaves to gain some sort of freedom? It has been said that this proclamation was more of a tool to win the war than a great act of American liberty.  What if the slaves were set free as soon as South Carolina separated from the Union in 1861?  What if the Union Army did not engage the south in fighting on a battlefield but simply defended the principles of our Constitution? This terrible war and all the bloodshed could have been avoided if we had approached the problems  in a more “civil manner”. Do you think any of the wars today could have been resolved in a more civil manner rather than an actual war?