The Emancipation Proclamation - A History in Tokens and Medals.

[BillJones]

 

Slavery ... It was the single most divisive issue that threatened to the formation of our country, and it was the issue that continued to menace the Union until it ripped it apart in 1861. Although all of the clauses are now obsolete, the constitution contained four provisions that the founding fathers deemed necessary to bring the slaving holding states into the fold:

 

 

This Civil War Token, which is now regarded as a pro-Southern copperhead piece, featured an image of the constitution because that document contained provisions a that protected slavery.

Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 3 - This section provided that the number of members a state sent to the House of Representatives was determined by its white population plus 3/5s of the slave population. This provision also added to the number of electoral votes a state had in presidential elections. The slaves had no civil rights, but their numbers added to the political influence that white citizens in the slave holding states had in Congress and the White House which exceeded the power that citizens had in the free states.

 

Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 1 - This section allowed the importation of slaves until 1808 and prohibited Congress from passing a law to end that importation until that date.

 

Article IV, Section 2, Paragraph 3 - This first fugitive slave law required states to return runaway slaves who had crossed state lines to their masters regardless of the returning state's domestic slavery statutes.

 

Article V, Paragraph 1 - This provision forbid any amendment to the constitution that would nullify the importation of slaves, covered in Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 1, before 1808.

 

Thus our nation started with provisions to support slavery written into our constitution from the beginning

 

 

Henry Clay is often credited as "the great compromiser" because of his role in the passage of the Missouri Compromise, but many other politicians played key roles as well. This piece was issued during Clay's 1832 campaign for the presidency against Andrew Jackson.

In the succeeding years slavery would continue to be a major issue as our nation expanded its territory. A continuing source of contention was that number of slave and free states had to be equal to preserve the political balance between the two. This issue came to a head in 1820 with the Missouri Compromise. The compromise allowed Missouri to be admitted as a slave while Maine was admitted as a free state. In addition slavery was prohibited in states and territories north of latitude 36°30'.

 

 

The centerpiece of Millard Fillmore's presidency was the Compromise of 1850. This piece was issued during his 1856 presidential campaign as the American or "Know Nothing" Party candidate.

The issue boiled up again when The United States nearly doubled its size after the Mexican War. The Wilmot Proviso, which was named for Pennsylvania Congressman, David Wilmot, called for the elimination of slavery within the lands that had been acquired from the Mexican War. Ultimately Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which authorized the onerous Fugitive Slave Law, among other provisions.

 

 

This Stephen Douglas piece from his 1860 run for the White House touted him as "The Champion of popular sovereignty."

In 1854 the Kansas - Nebraska Act overturned the Missouri Compromise by allowing the possibility of Slavery north of latitude 36°30'. It allowed the citizens of the perspective states to decide whether or not they would permit slavery within their jurisdiction. The author of the bill, Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas, thought his bill would provide a solution to the slavery question, but it blew up in his face. Pro and anti slavery men poured into Kansas and started a mini civil war which festered for years until the national Civil War began in 1861. "Bleeding Kansas" would ruin Stephen Douglas' chances for the White House. Many northern voters disagreed with his plans that could extend slavery to more states, and many southern voters no longer trusted him as an ally in their quest to expand the number of slave states.

 

 

James Buchanan thought that the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision would settle the slavery issue once and for all. He was wrong, as usual. This piece from his 1856 presidential campaign stated that the crisis demanded his election as president. Its message was wrong too.

The Supreme Court's abominable Dred Scott decision in 1857 further divided the nation. It found that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that slave owners had the right to take their slaves to any part of The United States that they chose even if the laws in that state forbid slavery. Furthermore the decision stated that African-Americans were not citizens of The United States and had no right to bring suit in an American court of law.

 

 

This piece touted John Brown as a martyr after he was executed for treason in December 1859.

Tensions escalated further in 1859 when anti-slavery fanatic, John Brown, staged his rail on the U.S. Government arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's strategy was to seize government weapons from the arsenal, ferment a slave rebellion and organize a guerrilla force in the mountains of Virginia that would stage raids on southern plantations.

 

Brown's raid, which was poorly planned and not well executed, was quickly put down by local militia and a government force headed by Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart, but it sent shock waves into the southern slave holding communities. Fears that slaves would rise up and kill their southern masters in their beds as they slept had long been a fear in the South. John Brown's raid brought that potential reality closer to the southern mindset.

 

The results of 1860 presidential election would be the event that would shatter the fragile Union. The Donkey Party chose to hold its national convention in Charlestown, South Carolina, which is in the center of southern hothead politics. Stephen Douglas entered the convention as the frontrunner for the presidential nomination, but the party rules stated that the presidential nominee had to receive two-thirds of the delegate votes to win the party nod. This Donkey Party rule gave the slaveholding states a veto over who could win the party's nomination.

 

Although Douglas had a majority of the delegates on his side, he could not get the two-thirds majority that he needed. After 57 ballots, the Donkeys voted to adjourn and meet again in Baltimore, Maryland to choose their nominee. At the Baltimore convention the Donkeys deadlocked again, but after the southern delegates walked out of the convention, the remaining members give Douglas the nomination.

 

 

Sitting vice president, John Breckenridge, was the Southern Donkey nominee for president in 1860.

The southern delegates quickly met in Baltimore and chose their nominee, vice president John Breckenridge. Some people assumed that Douglas and Breckenridge would get together, and that one of them would withdraw from the race. That did not happen, and the Donkeys remained fatally split which opened the door for Elephant Party candidate Abraham Lincoln to be elected president.

 

 

In 1860 Lincoln ran a platform that would allow slavery to continue in the states where it already existed, but he vowed not to allow it to spread to new states and territories.

 

This ferrotype depicts Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, and General P.T.G. Beauregard who oversaw the first shots at Fort Sumter and the initial Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Lincoln's election was the last straw for many southerners. The rise of a "Black Elephant Party" to the presidency signaled to the South that their "peculiar institution" was doomed despite assurances from Lincoln that he would not interfere with slavery in the states where it already existed. One by one the southern states succeeded from the Union and pulled together to form The Confederate States of America.

 

Lincoln was determined to put down the rebellion and restore the Union. To that end he pursued a path that displeased a significant part of his anti-slavery political base. Although Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery (Lincoln quote: "If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong."), the lawyer in him still clung to the notion of property rights and need to compensate those who stood to lose them. To that end Lincoln floated the idea of paying slave owners and offering the freed slaves the opportunity to move to South America or Liberia on the West African coast. Lincoln's critics, led by strong voices such as Frederic Douglas, condemned this plan and called upon him to free the slaves right away, but Lincoln was very hesitant to take that action immediately.

 

The states that bordered the South, which included Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee and southern Missouri, were all vital to the Union cause. If Kentucky, Tennessee and southern Missouri became fully fledged members of the Confederacy, winning the war would become far more difficult and time consuming. If Maryland left the Union, Washington, DC would become indefensible, and Delaware would be one more buffer between the North and the capital. Lincoln feared that if he issued an emancipation order there would be greater political pressure within those states would leave the Union. Therefore he hesitated.

 

In the spring of 1862 Lincoln began to think about a general emancipation that would go beyond the individual actions that that some of his generals had taken in the field. For example General Benjamin Butler had taken in any runaway slaves who came to his lines as "contrabands of war" and refused to return them to their masters. Other generals, such as John Fremont, had tried to issue general emancipations earlier in the war, but Lincoln had had to rescind that order and ultimately relieved Fremont of his command because of corruption and threats his policies posed to the political stability of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.

 

By the summer of 1862 Lincoln had formulated the Emancipation Proclamation and presented it to his cabinet. Each member had an objection to his proposal, but only one, secretary of state, William Seward, presented a convincing argument for delay. Seward noted that the Union's current military situation was poor with the failure of General George McClellan's Peninsula Campaign and recent major defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. The secretary argued that issuing the Emancipation Proclamation at that time would be a sign of desperation. It would be better to wait until there was a military success. Lincoln agreed and decided to table the proposal until there was a significant Union victory on the battlefield.

 

On September 17, 1862 Lincoln got his chance when Union forces blunted Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North at the Battle of Antietam. Although the battle was actually close to a draw, it nevertheless represented a southern failure to wreak havoc in the North that had resulted in heavy losses on both sides.

 

On September 22, 1862 President Lincoln issued his the Proclamation. It proclaimed that all slaves who were living in states that were still in rebellion against The United States of America on January 1, 1863 would henceforth be forever free. Excluded from this decree were slaves who were living in border states that were not rebellion. For that reason some have argued that the Emancipation Proclamation was useless document that succeeded in doing nothing, but they are wrong.

 

The Proclamation was actually a master stroke. First, it effectively ended the possibility that Great Britain and France would recognize the Confederacy diplomatically. Previously neither the North nor the South had had the moral high ground on the slavery issue. The South supported it, and the North allowed it. The Emancipation Proclamation placed the North in the position of opposing it. Once that position was made clean, neither of those major European powers could take the side of the pro-slavery South. Secondly, the Proclamation did not affect slavery in the border states, which kept them in the Union fold, although certainly anyone with any political insight could see where that trend would end.

 

Finally, the Proclamation placed the goals of the Civil War on higher ground. Before it had only a been a war to restore the Union. Now it was a war fought for a higher moral principle, the freedom of millions of human beings who had been oppressed for hundreds of years. To be sure there was a downside to this. Many in the Union Army grumbled that they didn't want to fight a war for slaves, but the soldiers did their duty. Ultimately the war the restore the Union and end slavery would be won. The issue was settled once and for all by the Thirteenth Amendment the constitution, passed in 1865, which ended slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for a crime. This would be the focus of the Steven Spielberg film, Lincoln.

 

 

I have two medals in my collection that commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation. The first was engraved by a Swiss die maker, Hugues Bovy (1841 - 1903), who based in Geneva, Switzerland. I have not been able to find a great deal of information about this piece or Mr. Bovy. Internet searches have led me to articles in French, which don't do me much good since I can't read that language. My guess is this piece was first issued sometime between 1865 and 1868. I know that Bovy made two medals for the Swiss Club that featured 1868 presidential candidate U.S. Grant.

 

 

The other medal is a U.S. Mint project. William Barber, who was the father of Charles Barber, made the dies. This piece was first issued in 1871, and it proved to be quite popular, for a 19th century American medal. The total 19th century mintage with the mahogany finish was 232 pieces in copper, which is unusual since mintages for most medals from this era are usually half that amount. The U.S. Mint issued this variety in the "yellow bronze" format in the 20th century.

 

 

The wrap things up, there was one other privately financed celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation that was issued at the time that Lincoln's monumental decree took effect. Michigan Civil War die maker, James Gleason, added his voice to the celebration by issuing a token, that featured the misspelled words "Military Necesity (sic). At the time that Lincoln issued his Proclamation he did so under his authority as commander and chief, not as a civil law leader.

 

Many thanks to NGC board member, wdrob, who supplied me with a beautiful example of the Bovy Emancipation medal. It inspired to me post this article.

 

[rockhobby]

Thank you for taking the time to show us via tokens and medals a glimpse of the political thought behind one of the most important issues in United States history. I for one am grateful for the time and effort you and a few others (RWB, JAA and leeg come to mind) put into this great hobby of ours.

 

Again, thank you for a nice informative presentation,

 

Doug

 

[wdrob]

 

That was an absolutely great read.

 

I have to agree without reservation with rockhobby. I always enjoy reading these historical education posts as there are quite a few on here that do such a great job in that respect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SkyMan]

Excellent read Bill, with some wonderful numismatic examples!!!

[KeyMan64]

I read the full post ATS. Great post and worthy of a bump here!

[rrantique]

Excellent read Bill, with some wonderful numismatic examples!!!

 

+1 (thumbs u

[ldhair]

[dadams]

Great Read!! It is posts like this that keep me collecting (and learning).

 

There is a decent bio of H. Bovy (up through 1898) in The Numismatic Circular This would be his 2nd Engraved Medal overall and his first executed in 1865. Supposedly, In making the abbreviated "Proclaimed" on the reverse Bovy forgot an "I" making "Proclam'd" with later versions corrected (ref.) . I also found reference to copies being struck in Silver, Bronze, and Aluminum and with a variant reverse inscription reading "Abolition of Slavery Proclaimed"

[BillJones]

Thank you for the Bovy link! (thumbs u

 

As a coda to the initial post, I should add that there was a Union military disaster that almost derailed the Emancipation Proclamation's starting date of January 1, 1863, and that was the Battle of Fredericksburg. In mid December Union General Ambrose Burnside led a force to the town to attack Robert E. Lee's army.

 

The Rebels held the high grade above the town, and Burnside should have acknowledged the huge disadvantage his forces faced in trying to dislodge them from that spot. Instead Burnside ordered a frontal assault on the Rebel position which proved to be a near total disaster. From their position high above the Union forces, the Rebels were able to shoot Yankees like fish in a barrel. Burnside ordered assault after assault, all to little avail. Overall the casualty count was 12,600 for the Union and 5,600 for the Confederacy. Some might have argued that this disaster could have delayed Lincoln's emancipation date, but he went through with the January 1 date as planned.

 

Today it's hard to get a view of the Confederate high grade advantage a Fredericksburg because the hills are now covered with trees. When I toured the area years ago this was the one picture I could get from the place where Lee viewed the battle that provided a sense of what it was like.

 

 

And here is a merchant Civil War token that features a portrait of General Ambrose Burnside.

 

 

[physics-fan3.14]

Fantastic post, Bill!