Senate Resolution No. 77

BY: Senator PARKER

COMMEMORATING the 160th Anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to commemorate
significant events which represent turning points in our unique history
and which are indelibly etched in the saga of our great Nation; and

WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its
long-standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to
commemorate the 160th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation; and

WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation on January 1, 1863, 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."; and

WHEREAS, Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation
Proclamation applied only to states that had seceded from the United
States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states; it also
expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under
Northern control; most important, the freedom it promised depended upon
Union (United States) military victory; and

WHEREAS, Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not completely
end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of
millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the
war; and

WHEREAS, After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops
expanded the domain of freedom; moreover, the Proclamation announced the
acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the
liberated to become liberators; by the end of the war, nearly 200,000
black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom; and

WHEREAS, From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to
secure their own liberty; the Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their
insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom; and

WHEREAS, The original of the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1,
1863, is in the National Archives in Washington, DC; with the text
covering five pages, the document was originally tied with narrow red
and blue ribbons which were attached to the signature page by a wafered
impression of the seal of the United States; most of the ribbon remains;
parts of the seal are still decipherable, but other parts have worn off;
and

WHEREAS, The Emancipation Proclamation added moral force to the
Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically;
as a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the
Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents
of human freedom; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 160th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.