Lincoln is a Constitutional Revolutionary.
When faced with overwhelming crisis for the country he had just been sworn in to protect, President Abraham Lincoln crossed boundaries in order to achieve his goals. His intensions were to stabilize his union. In many instances Lincoln ignored presidential limitations established by the constitution so that he could more effectively control the country's situation and to fulfill political and social goals. This was seen in both his policies and his writings. And because of this attitude Lincoln, in the end, is considered a constitutional revolutionary. .
On the first of January 1863 President Lincoln issued a speech known as the Emancipation Proclamation. The speech declared that slaves in rebellious States would be from then on free. In his own words it was stated,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?.? The proclamation was planed out very carefully. Because the declaration only targeted slaves in seceded states, no slaves were actually feed at that time. Lincoln would not lose support from the states remaining in the union because the document had no direct effect on them. By doing this Lincoln was able to gain support from the northern free blacks. This would lead to them joining his army and furthering his cause. The effects the emancipation proclamation satisfied the president morally and politically, along with strengthening his army. Though it was a strategic move it was vastly unconstitutional. At that time slaves were not viewed as men, which under the bill of rights would be entitled to equal rights. Slaves were property and the emancipation was in reality federal seizure of that private property. The constitution does not give the president the power or the right for such an action.
