Bill Text: NY J00077 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Commemorating the 160th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-01-10 - ADOPTED [J00077 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-J00077-Introduced.html

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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.