Why did Lincoln wait until after the Battle of Antietam to issue the emancipation proclammation?

Answer 1

freeing the slaves

Answer 2

Lincoln's Cabinet persuaded him to wait until the North could claim a military victory before announcing the proclamation in order to prevent foreign powers from viewing it as a desperation measure.

Answer 3

There were several reasons why Lincoln waited to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. One such reason was that the Emancipation Proclamation had to be proven as constitutional. He also had to make sure that timing was right so as to avoid political backlash.

Answer 4

Because the south had been repeatedly victorious, if Lincoln had issued it sooner it would have looked like a desperate measure. After the union's sucess at Antietam, Lincoln issued the proclamation.

Answer 5

Antietam was the first Northern victory after Robert E. Lee's string of successes in Virginia in Summer 1862.

Lincoln had been waiting for an opportunity to proclaim freedom for Southern slaves, but had to wait for a victory, otherwise it would have looked like a desperate measure.

Answer 6

Lincoln needed a Union victory in order to issue one of the proclamation. Politically it the public would have perceived a proclaimtion following a southern victory as untenable for how would Lincoln proclaim slaves free if the union can't even win on the battlefield. Also the proclaimations essentially made the south look like an archaic unethical society. Internationally no other govt would recognize the confederacy.

Answer 7

Mainly because he didn't want to seem like it was issuing it because he was losing the war and desperate.

One of the major reasons for issuing the proclamation was that he didn't want European countries like France or Britain to start helping the Confederacy (which they were both considering doing)- most European countries had abolished slavery already, and the proclamation made it clear that anyone who supported the Confederacy also supported slavery.

If he had not waited until after Antietam, which was a fairly significant Union victory (the battle itself is usually considered a draw but the Union held the field and stopped a Confederate invasion of Union-held Maryland), it would have looked like he was just doing it out of desperation. It wouldn't have been as effective, and might have been ignored by the foreign powers Lincoln had sought to influence.

Answer 8

Against the best advice from his cabinet, Lincoln announced the first part of his Emancipation Proclamation. He did this a he stated, as a war measure. Europeans were not fooled however, the London Times for example noted that the states where he did have executive wartime powers, the border states, these slaves were not part of the package.Most of his cabinet were not enthusiastic over Lincoln's idea or even the timing of the announcement.

Answer 9

freeing the slaves