Post the bill I would like to read it.
Also of interest is this website which I chose because it seems to be fair and unbiased and they really have no need to hide such important information--
I quote from http://www.moc.org/site/DocServer/Microsoft_Word_-_Durden_Lecture_Summary1.pdf?docID=882
"At one such meeting in Richmond on February 9, 1865, Virginia’s Senator Hunter argued
“that the South was to be held criminally responsible for a war that it had not begun” and that blacks
would benefit from remaining enslaved in a victorious South. But Judah Benjamin argued for the
first time publicly that slaves should be freed by each state because additional soldiers were needed
to win the war.
“The measure that ultimately was enacted, introduced by Representative Barksdale of
Mississippi on February 10, 1865, the day after Benjamin’s speech, made no provision for
emancipating slaves. It merely authorized the President to accept from the owners of slaves the
services of such a number of able-bodied Negro men as he may deem expedient to perform military
service in whatever capacity he may direct....[N]ot more than twenty percent of the male slaves
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five should be called from...any one state. This crucial last
section of the law stated that nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in the
relation which the said slave shall bear toward their owners, except by consent of the owners and of
the states in which they may reside and in pursuance of the laws thereof.”
“[E]xtraordinary efforts” were required to pass this proposal. Benjamin received approval
from Lee’s army on February 11. A highly-publicized letter from General Lee to Congressman
Barksdale dated February 18, 1865, that supported the drafting and then emancipating of slaves
“turned the tide” on this issue.
But not everyone could be made to accept the proposal. On March 4 and 6, the Virginia
legislature agreed that slaves and free blacks could fight in the Confederate army, but their military
service would not result in emancipation. The Confederate Army and Davis managed to overcome
the opposition by the Virginia legislature and the Confederate Congress to emancipation by adding
to army regulations that slaves could fight if they so desired and if their masters submitted a written
approbation that the slave could be freed after the war.
By mid-March, free and enslaved blacks were being recruited formally in Richmond. The
newspapers noted that they seemed to be capable soldiers.
Davis and Lee were “disappointed by the legislation,” but still supported the arming and
emancipating of slaves although “time was running out.” In Lee’s last letter to Davis, dated April 2,
he wrote that he was glad that blacks were being trained. But by then, the war was almost over."
Now if you would be so kind as to point out how maintaining the institution is the goal of "the Confederate leadership" I would greatly appreciate it.
By the way didn't the Emancipation Proclamation only free the slaves in the "rebelling states?" Wasn't that the position of Lincoln who was POTUS??
Are we trying to apply another double standard here?
GP