Freedom Declaration Quotes

The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was put into effect on January 1, 1863, but news of the Proclamation and enforcement did not reach Texas until after the end of the Civil War almost two years later.

Proclaiming slaves free does not make them free.

Emancipation was a proclamation, but not a fact.

I do further declare all indentured servants, negroes or others (appertaining to rebels) free that are able and willing to bear arms.

We order and command all and each of the faithful of each sex that, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their pristine liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands ... who have been made subject to slavery (servituti subicere). These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money

They feel assured, as to yourself, that if the option remain with you, it is but a question of time and of form when and how a proclamation of emancipation will be issued.

I'm William Wallace, and the rest of you will be spared. Go back to England and tell them... Scotland is free!

I do hereby declare all indented servants, negroes or others (appertaining to rebels) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his majesty’s troops …

The President then proceeded to read his Emancipation Proclamation, making remarks on the several parts as he went on, and showing that he had fully considered the whole subject, in all lights under which it had been presented to him.

And upon this act [Emancipation Proclamation]...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God.

the signing of the Declaration of Independence … This was the first public assertion of equality.

Today - wealthier, more powerful and more able than ever before in our history - our Nation can declare another essential freedom.

True Americanism is practical idealism. Its aims, instead of being materialistic and mechanical, are idealistic to the point of being Utopian. In this way, the U.S. can provide and express ideals that strike a chord in humans everywhere - a declaration of independence on behalf of all the peoples of the world.